{"id":840027,"date":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840027\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","slug":"relief-of-premier-league-title-has-given-arsenal-confidence-says-david-raya-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/840027\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Relief\u2019 of Premier League title has given Arsenal confidence, says David Raya | Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">David Raya says Arsenal are playing with greater confidence after the \u201crelief\u201d of winning the Premier League. The champions continued their perfect start to the defence of their crown with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/sep\/06\/arsenal-chelsea-premier-league-match-report\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2-1 home win against Chelsea<\/a> on Sunday, making it nine points out of nine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It was a powerhouse performance coloured by a freedom of expression, which stood in contrast to the nerviness of the final months of last season when the team laboured under a weight of pressure and expectation before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/may\/19\/arsenal-premier-league-champions-manchester-city-bournemouth\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they beat Manchester City to the title<\/a>. That was Arsenal\u2019s first triumph since 2004 and followed three consecutive runners-up finishes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The shackles were off against Chelsea, just as they have been for much of the season, beginning with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/aug\/16\/arsenal-manchester-city-community-shield-match-report\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3-0 win against City in the Community Shield<\/a>. Kai Havertz and Martin \u00d8degaard scored the goals against Chelsea and provided most of the creative flourishes. But it was the ferocity of the collective intensity, the sheer physicality, that took the breath. Raya pulled off a stunning late save to deny the Chelsea substitute Est\u00eav\u00e3o. Arsenal did not deserve to drop points. It was an ominous statement of intent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWinning the league after that many years and after those years that you are so close \u2026 it gives you that relief and it gives you that extra confidence,\u201d Raya said. \u201cComing from the three games this season, especially the Community Shield, winning against City, the way we played against them \u2013 that gives you extra motivation and extra confidence to play the way we want to play \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cHopefully we can keep playing this way because we know how good we are. We know we can beat anybody in this league. Let\u2019s just focus on the moment and be in the present.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The most eye-catching aspect of the display was how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/arsenal\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a> reacted to going behind after 77 seconds to a Morgan Rogers volley. They attacked in waves and created a remarkable number of openings before Havertz equalised in the 25th minute. The belief could also be felt in the stands where there was no panic, only bellowed encouragement.<\/p>\n<p>Quick GuidePlay our football trivia game, On the ballShow<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/2025\/sep\/29\/upgrade-your-downtime-with-guardian-puzzles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">daily football game<\/a>, On the ball, is now live in the app for both iOS and Android.\u00a0Can you identify the Premier League star from the clues?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThere\u2019s things to improve on that goal [by Rogers],\u201d Raya said. \u201cWe had to defend a little bit better, especially right at the start of the game. It was disappointing to concede that goal. But the main thing is the reaction that we had after it and the way we played. The way we dominated, the way we attacked, we defended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWe know how good Chelsea are, especially in transitions, and the way the play is dragged back to defend. So it was a really important win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Raya says Arsenal are playing with greater confidence after the \u201crelief\u201d of winning the Premier League. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-840027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}