New Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya has tattoo that reminds Gunners of embarrassing defeat; club reveal it during announcement

Arsenal's new signing David Raya has a neck tattoo that might not go down well with fans.

The Gunners have signed Raya from Brentford on a season-long loan with an option to buy next summer. The Spaniard is expected to provide competition to Aaron Ramsdale.

As the north London side shared Raya's unveiling photoshoot, a picture from the back meant to show his number (22) also revealed the Spaniard's tattoo. The goalkeeper has "13-08-2021" tattooed on his neck. The date is a reminder of Raya's first game in the Premier League for Brentford when they beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Gtech Community Stadium.

The Spaniard joined the Bees from Blackburn Rovers in 2019 and helped them get promoted to the Premier League. Brentford faced the Gunners in their first game after promotion, with Sergi Canos and Christian Norgaard helping them to a memorable win. That was the only time Raya was on the winning side against the north London side, losing twice and drawing once.

Overall, the Spaniard has been excellent for Brentford, keeping 54 clean sheets in 161 games across competitions. That saw him garner interest from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich earlier this summer, but he eventually joined Arsenal.

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta hails David Raya

Aaron Ramsdale kept 14 clean sheets in 38 Premier League games last season as the Gunners put up a title challenge against Manchester City. However, he also made some errors towards the end of the campaign, leading the club to sign David Raya.

In a press conference ahead of Arsenal's clash at Crystal Palace on Monday (August 21), manager Mikel Arteta was asked about Raya's signing. He explained that the club signed the Spaniard to prepare for injury scares (via Arsenal.com):

"Better qualities for our game model, it’s very simple. We want two players per position that can do that, and you saw what happened to Jurrien, it can happen to our goalkeeper, it happened to (Thibaut) Courtois."

"You need to be prepared because the question will be ‘what is it, two goalkeepers of this size?’ And if Aaron was to sustain a cruciate injury, then what do you say? You then change everything."

He added:

"So, we have to be prepared, we have to be proactive, and we have two excellent goalkeepers now that fit exactly what we want in our model, so I’m very happy with that."

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois recently suffered an ACL injury and will be out for a few months. The Gunners have themselves suffered an injury blow, with new signing Jurrien Timber suffering an ACL injury in his first competitive game for the club.