Oliver Glasner has revealed he told his Crystal Palace side to target a weakness of one Arsenal star ahead of their 2-2 draw with the Gunners.
Arsenal took the lead twice on the night through Jakub Kiwior and Leandro Trossard but were pegged back courtesy of stunning goals from Eberechi Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta, and were fortunate to walk away with a point in the end with Palace the side pushing for victory in the last ten minutes.
Mateta’s equaliser saw William Saliba cede him possession outside his box before the Frenchman chipped David Raya superbly to win Palace a point, and Glasner confirmed after the game that he had told his players to be wary of the goalkeeper’s positioning.
“We showed the players yesterday when we were preparing the opponent, we showed them that David Raya is high [off his line],’ Glasner said.
“It was the third time [in the match] we had this situation – the first one Justin Devenny didn’t recognise it, so we forgot it.
“Adam Wharton had the kick in the first half where he hit Thomas Partey and this would have been quite dangerous. And then we got the third opportunity and JP [Mateta] had this amazing finish.”
While analysing Mateta’s goal, Carragher opened up on the “problem” he had with Raya’s part in it.
“We’re going to see this more and more where goalkeepers are not just good on the ball but if you see, Raya is part of the back four, that’s fine,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.
“Where I do have a problem with David Raya, as soon as Odegaard takes up the position as another centre-back, I just think you have to get back in your goal.
“And maybe it’s the thing of, ‘we’re winning 2-1’, a little bit more lax than it would have been. As soon as Saliba plays it he doesn’t need to be there.
“And it’s a mess from Saliba, and it’s been a couple of times now. He was brilliant at the Bernabeu but he lost his focus [for Real Madrid’s goal]. And that is absolutely outstanding [from Mateta].”
Carragher also hit out at Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard over the playmaker’s “average season”.
The pundit said: “I feel like a lot of the time, he [Odegaard] is not in the positions he should be. Which is between the lines. Not so much this season, I think he’s had an average season but before that and I was looking at him thinking he was almost on the level of Kevin De Bruyne when he gets the ball between the lines.
“He was threading things, everything was going through him, felt like I was watching one of the best players in the Premier League.
“He’s always coming out of the danger area, he’s almost coming into a central midfield position, any easy position for me where he can make nice passes, look neat and tidy but not really hurting anybody.”