David Raya highlighted the positives after Arsenal were beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final at the Emirates Stadium
Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya put on a brave face after the Gunners' Champions League first leg defeat against Paris Saint-Germain, but not everyone thought his optimism was warranted. Wayne Rooney slammed the Spaniard for his stance on the 1-0 reverse, with fellow pundit Clarence Seedorf agreeing.
Ousmane Dembele gave PSG an early lead and Luis Enrique's side could easily have added a second before the break. Mikel Merino saw an equaliser disallowed following a tight offside, while Leandro Trossard and Bradley Barcola spurned big chances for either side in the second half.
Speaking to Amazon Prime after the defeat, goalkeeper Raya looked at the positives. "They started quick with a goal and they dominated the first 15-20 minutes but after that we dominated most of the game, created the chances," the former Brentford star said.
"Donnarumma made some good saves. It's only half-time, we take positives. They are a top team but credit to the players for the effort - we could've won the game. We know they keep possession a lot and are good at that. They had that chance and put it in the net, this is football and we had chances to score but we didn't manage to.
"I've not seen [disallowed] goal back but we needed that lift and we showed from the 25th minute of the first half that we can win against any team. We have showed in the season we can win away games too so we'll go to Paris next week trying to win."
Rooney didn't see things the same way, but had a theory when it came to the motivation behind the comments. "I think what's happened there is Mikel Arteta's probably gone in and tried to be as positive as he can be and David Raya has given that message back out because certainly that's not what happened in the game," he said.
"I think for Arsenal there's a fear over the last few years, psychologically, there's a fear of not getting over the line. They've ran Manchester City close a couple of times in the league, they've ran Liverpool a little bit close, now they've beaten Madrid and they're close in the Champions League...
"I think there's a fear. There's a hurdle they have to go over. You need to be successful to build, and that's the only way you can build is being successful on the way on the journey to the top, and I don't think they're making those steps."
Seedorf was similarly quick to question Raya's take. "It's very difficult to do interviews after the match and do a good analysis of the match, because sometimes the feeling doesn't really match the reality," the four-time Champions League winner said.
"But I do hope he will have a good look at the match tomorrow, because it's important to understand what went wrong. Because the second leg, I think Arsenal have so many things to learn from today that can help them.
"It's not so difficult. Because we have seen Paris Saint-Germain [get into] difficulty the moment you have an organised defensive team in front of them."