Tuesday 28 September 2010

Arsenal need to act quick to save season

Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski - Arsenal's goalkeeping crisis: a season to forget for Arsene Wenger
Almunia and Fablianski have come in for huge criticism for their recent performances for Arsenal.

 First the good news, Manuel Almunia will not be in goal for Arsenal in the Champions League match against Partizan Belgrade but with all good news there has to be bad news.

Lukasz Fabianski will start in Serbia and the news will send shivers down every Gooner's spine. The Polish keeper and the Champions League do not mix.

Remember Porto?

The 25-year-old, who Arsene Wenger believes to have world class qualities (you are the only only one Arsene), spilled a regulation cross into his own net under no pressure. Arsenal fought back and grabbed a foothold into the game only for it to be undone by the error prone keeper again.

A long ball over the top of the defence was not dealt with by Sol Campbell and the ball ricochet off the central defender's leg. Fabianski picked the ball up and the referee awarded a indirect free kick for a pass back. The keeper then inexplicably gave the ball to the referee while his players were still way up the pitch and Porto's quick thinking gave them an unopposed tap in.

The goalkeepers Wenger has at his disposal are a time bomb which keeps going off. How many more mistakes is it going to take for Wenger to wise up. The Arsenal fans can see it and it is hard to understand how this situation is allowed to continue.

Wenger is a manager who pays attention to detail. He designed Arsenal's London Colney training complex, he designed the Emirates stadium from how wide his seat was to how wide the toilets are in the stadium but how can this brilliant manager have such a blind spot when it comes to goalkeepers.

It is not just a recent issue. Arsene Wenger inherited his only world class goalkeeper. David Seaman, arguably England's greatest goalkeeper, was a rock behind Arsenal's defence for years and he must lose sleep over the current Arsenal crop and Wenger's other goalkeeping flops.

First we had Richard Wright who froze on the big stage Jens Lehman was probably Wenger best goalkeeping buy but he was eccentric and prone to the odd error. Remember Rami Shaaban? And now Almunia and Fabianski. Say no more.

The startling thing about this whole issue is the Arsenal boss seemed to realise the men between the sticks were a problem. Wenger courted Mark Schwarzer openly. There are also very strong rumours he tested Liverpool's metal with a huge bid for Pepe Reina. There was the option of bidding for one of Joe Hart and Shay Given when it was not known who would start as number one at Eastlands.

But nothing materialised to the disbelief of the Arsenal faithful. Rumours of Wenger not coughing up an extra £500,000 for Schwarzer was an extraordinary development seeing as Arsenal announced a record profits of £56 million last week.

It seems Wenger is just stubborn and cannot admit he is wrong. He needs a goalkeeper and everyone can see it. There are still sceptics about the goalkeepers he pursued in the summer as Given can be vulnerable to crosses, a major problem with Arsenal's defence, and Schwarzer has not had the best start to the season. But there are keepers out there.

Hugo Lloris from Lyon has been mentioned, Igor Akinfeev of CSKA Moscow has been watched by several Premier League clubs and Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg was linked after impressing at the World Cup. There is not a lack of options out there but Wenger thought he knew best. This decision is already coming back to haunt him.

So how do you deal with the situation now? Do what you do best Arsene and take a punt on youth. The situation CANNOT get any worse.

There are great hopes for 20-year-old Wojciech Szczesny. He got rave reviews for a loan spell with Brentford last year where he kept 10 clean sheets in 28 appearances. He has only made one Arsenal appearance to date in a 2-0 win over West Brom in the Carling Cup last season.

It is time for him to be given a chance because the keepers in front of him cannot stop making mistakes. Almunia against West Brom, Fabianski at White Hart lane. One after another the list goes on and the issue cannot be dealt with until January when the transfer window re-opens. Szczesny is the only option who we have not seen make a mistake yet.

In January the Arsenal boss needs to act quickly but before then he must back the young polish goalkeeper because he cannot be any worse than Manuel or 'Flapianski'. For a manager who gives youth a chance he cannot hold back the young keeper any longer. He is not the Messiah but it might just be the difference between Arsenal still being in the title race in January or there season being over.

Who knows Szczesny might even solve the problem before Wenger has to dip into his transfer kitty. That would certainly put a smile on the Frenchman's face.

1 comment:

  1. I was proved wrong last night and lets hope Wenger sticks with Fabianski for Sunday to build his confidence.

    But I am still not convinced.

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