Arsenal player reprimanded with yellow card for employing ‘dark arts’ while representing his national team

David Raya found humor in the situation after being shown a yellow card for his sneaky tactics during Spain's Nation's League victory against Denmark.

Having made a sensational start to the new season, the Arsenal goalkeeper appears to have usurped Unai Simon as La Roja’s No.1.

Raya kept another clean sheet last night as the reigning European Champions enjoyed a 1-0 victory courtesy of Martin Zubimendi’s 79th minute goal.

The 29-year-old produced another flawless display and even he was able to laugh off the injury time booking he received for attempting to run the clock down.

Arsenal’s tactics have come under the microscope at times this season with the conduct of their players at set-pieces getting under the skin of their opposition.

Last month Arsenal were revealed to be the biggest time-wasters in the league with Raya, himself, accused of exploiting a loophole in the rules by Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher.

‘When I mention the Morurinho thing, he was always ahead of the game in terms of trying to gain an advantage somewhere,’ Carragher told The Overlap with Sky Bet.

‘There’s one thing I do notice Arsenal doing more than anyone. I don’t know if the stats back me up I think the goalkeeper goes down a lot more than other goalkeepers in tense situations.

‘The rule is a goalkeeper can’t go off so that’s definitely one that the coaching staff at Arsenal are more switched on about that anyone else. I see Raya go down in pressure situations.’

Guest presenter Paul Scholes chimed in and went a step further, and said: ‘Cheating that’s called isn’t it, Jamie?’

‘It is but you said it so you can have the headline not me,’ said Carragher in response.

Arsenal came under particularly heavy fire following their controversial 2-2 draw against Manchester City last month where they were only denied a landmark win by a late John Stones equaliser.

Defending his team in the wake of that draw, Arteta said: ‘We had to play the game that we had to play. They played 30 seconds with 10 men, and look what they did,” Arteta said, referring to the brief period when City stalled as the injured Rodri was replaced by Mateo Kovacic in the first half.

‘It’s normal what they did. Unfortunately we’ve been in the same situation [before]. We were in that same situation with Granit [Xhaka, when the midfielder was sent off] and we lost 5-0. We’d better learn. If not I would be very thick.’