Raya double-save brilliance earns Arsenal a fine UCL point that should matter more than it does

We’re not fans of this new Champions League format.

When asked to fire out a quick 800 words on why we don’t like it, we instead ranted on in increasingly deranged fashion for 1600. We’d like to claim the long and boring nature of that column was a clever nod to the issues with the new format, but in reality we are just long and boring.

We’re going to desperately try not to repeat ourselves, but will almost certainly fail. Apologies in advance. Fair warning and all that.

But one thing this new format does do is challenge some cliches and preconceptions, and that is at least going to be slightly interesting. Maybe. For a bit, anyway. It pretty much has to be in the absence of any real sporting significance to the estimable efforts shown here in a fascinating yet goalless display by two good sides in Atalanta and Arsenal, both of whom deserve to be able to feel their endeavour and effort on the night might have really meant anything.

There was a chat among the TNT commentators and pundits in the closing stages about whether a 0-0 draw would represent a good result for Arsenal, and the consensus was that yes, it’s a good point.

We think that conclusion was right, but for the wrong reason. We’re all learning as we go with this new format but we think it’s safe to conclude there is a big difference between a 36-team group and a four-team group.

In your old Champions League group stage, there would be no discussion. This would absolutely be A Good Away Point. Away from home, against a very good side that bamboozled both Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen to win last season’s Europa League and delighted us all here by bringing on Juan Cuadrado for an entertaining years-rolling-back half-hour cameo.

But one of the key reasons why that would in previous years be such a decent result for Arsenal is not just the single point it earns them but also the two it denies their opponents. In a four-team group, that’s a hugely significant part of the outcome. In this new format, that part of the equation is almost meaningless.

Of course, pretty much all parts of the equation in this new format are almost meaningless. It’s been carefully designed that way.

Does make us wonder, though, if as the competition wears on teams might be more willing to push the boat in search of three points for themselves at the risk of just one when denying points to your opponent is so much less important than it once was.

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Really, this was a game played to a high-level stalemate by two teams who largely cancelled each other out. Both will feel they have ticked off one of the hardest of their eight league-stage assignments, and both should easily make the top-24 cut-off, which is itself an absurd thing to be talking about. Sorry. No repeating ourselves…

But both these teams would still be near certainties for that top 24 whatever tonight’s outcome. The point both teams walk away with is unlikely to be vital for either of them in a material sense. But the vibes of that point could be significant, and that’s why this still feels like a decent outcome for Arsenal.

This game marked – until Sunday at least – a marked step up from anything they’ve faced so far this season and they were handily equal to it. They might have won the game, could very well have lost it, and emerge in credit with a point. Absolutely fine, and they can roll on to Sunday’s truly massive and significant game with confidence and vigour intact.

The precise and thorough organisation that was such a feature of the win at Spurs was in evidence again here, but the failure to create much from open play might be giving Mikel Arteta the slightest of niggles. At least this time, unlike last week, there is the mitigation of playing against a sensible team with a defence very nearly as capable and organised as their own.

The declining form and confidence of Gabriel Martinelli might be giving Arteta a bit of bother too, the Brazilian rushing himself and spurning two of the few presentable chances that either side were able to carve out here. But generally all seems well. Having been slightly stitched up with a Thursday night game before that potentially season-defining trip to the Etihad, they’ve done what they need to do in coming through this high-tariff but low-intensity task without harshing the buzz.

The very best chances, though, came to the hosts in quick succession via Mateo Retegui’s penalty and follow-up header. The decision for the penalty itself, a straightforward award, took an ungodly amount of time to be awarded by VAR and how knows whether that delay got in Retegui’s head. Either way, his spot-kick was poor but he appeared certain to score as the ball bounced kindly straight back to him. His header was imprecise but it still seemed unlikely this would matter all that much until David Raya somehow sprung across his goal-line from the initial save to claw the ball away.

We’re probably forgetting several other contenders, but our instant gut reaction was to declare the second of those saves the best by an Arsenal goalkeeper since that David Seaman absurdity against Sheffield United that time. You know the one.

It was the game’s clear standout moment from a ‘keeper in rare form right now. For all Arsenal’s brilliance, their start to the season owes a great deal to the brilliance of a keeper who has conceded only once all season and now boasts an absurd save percentage north of 90 per cent.

This was an even better save than the one to deny Ollie Watkins in the win at Aston Villa last month. It’s neither Raya’s fault nor Arsenal’s that this one almost certainly means so much less.