Key Arsenal star David Raya could achieve what all-conquering Manchester United never could and end 48-year run

It’s nearly 50 years since a goalkeeper won the PFA Player of the Year award, but David Raya would be well worthy of bucking the trend.

Bruno Fernandes has already been named the Football Writers’ Player of the Year, much to the bemusement of talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham among others.

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Raya’s Arsenal teammates William Saliba and Declan Rice are both seen as more likely recipients of the PFA gong.

But if, as expected, Arsenal are crowned champions later this month, the Spaniard will have contributed as much as anyone to ending their 22-year title drought.

Raya’s clean sheet in Arsenal’s crucial but contentious 1-0 victory at West Ham saw him scoop the Golden Glove for the third season in a row.

Raya of sunshine

He has kept shutouts in half of his 36 league games, encapsulating the remarkable consistency he has shown since walking through the doors at the club’s London Colney training ground.

He has also conceded only four goals in 13 outings en route to the Gunners’ first Champions League final in two decades.

West Ham fans will claim VAR came to Raya’s rescue by ruling out Callum Wilson’s stoppage time equaliser.

However, his brilliant save to deny Mateus Fernandes from point blank range with the score at 0-0 was as momentous in the title race as Leandro Trossard’s deflected late winner.

With Peter Schmeichel watching from the stands, Raya spread himself just like the Great Dane used to all those years ago and stuck out a big right leg to keep out Fernandes’s low shot.

That was by no means the first match-defining moment the Gunners’ number one has come up with in what is shaping up to be a historic campaign in north London.

Against Brighton back in December, he displayed an incredible feat of athleticism to claw away Yankuba Minteh’s stunning curler as Arsenal clung on to a precious 2-1 win.

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As recently as two weeks ago he was equal to Sandro Tonali’s late knuckleball strike that would have earned Newcastle a share of the spoils in a narrow 1-0 Magpies defeat.

Another full-length save prevented Alejandro Garnacho rescuing a point for Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium in March, a moment which Mike Arteta admitted ‘made my heart stop.’

Despite winning five Premier League titles, three FA Cup and two Champions League with Manchester United, Schmeichel was never recognised by his peers when it came to the ultimate accolade.

In fact Peter Shilton was the last gloveman to win the PFA award way back in 1978, almost two decades before 30-year-old Raya was even born.

There is a reason goalkeepers are always the last pick in the school playground and it is simply not a fashionable position.

But a season when Arsenal’s title push has been built more of defence resilience than free-flowing attack football, maybe now is the time to recognise the heroics of a player who this time 12 years ago was turning out for lowly Southport in the National League.

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