At the start of the 2007-2008 season Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann made two mistakes which cost us goals. In the first game of the season against Fulham he miskicked a back pass which allowed David Healy to put the visitors 1-0 up in the 1st minute. Two late goals, from van Persie and Hleb, saved his blushes.
He played the next game, a 2-0 away win over Sparta Prague in the Champions League qualifying round. Then came a trip to Blackburn and with Arsenal 1-0 up another mistake allowed David Dunn to equalise. Despite being the goalkeeping invincible Lehmann was unceremoniously dropped. He didn’t play again until December 12th. It was a Champions League game and qualification had already been assured. He played some cup games and some end of season games but only made 13 appearances in total – and it should be remembered that the European Championships took place that summer, Lehmann’s position as Germany’s number 1 was under threat. Arsene knew that but there was no room for sentiment.
Perhaps there was more behind the scenes stuff than we know about but ultimately Jens lost his place because he made high profile mistakes which cost the team goals. His replacement, Manuel Almunia, knew that even though the manager had given him the chance to stake his claim as first choice, he had a hungry, bitter German waiting for him to fail. Any hint of the old Almunia and he’d find himself benched.
And to be fair to the Spaniard he responded. He had a good season and consolidated it with another decent season the following year. So much so that I was not alone in thinking that while he’d never be a world class keeper he was solid enough for us to continue with.
Here we are at the end of the next season and the goalkeeping situation at the club is farcical. Almunia has made a series of errors, unsettled his defence and shipped goals yet has been given far more leeway than Jens Lehmann ever was. An injury to Lukasz Fabianski meant we had to rely on our third choice keeper, young Italian Vito Mannone, for a spell (Man City and the FA take note, please) as Almunia was withdrawn, or withdrew himself, from the firing line after the Man City game at Eastlands.
Mannone had a storming game against Fulham but then, naturally enough, began to make the kinds of mistakes that 19 year old keepers with no first team experience make. This is not a criticism of him in any way. Official second choice Lukasz Fabianski made his comeback in the Carling Cup against Liverpool, did all right, but injured himself again and spent more time out. Almunia returned for the Sp*rs game yet remained unconvincing and prone to errors.
Fabianski’s return to action was in a 1-0 away defeat to Olympiakos, a nothing game in which the likes of Gilles Sunu and Kyle Bartley played for Arsenal. He then played in the FA Cup at West Ham, which Arsenal won. The Cup was his chance to prove himself and to show that the proclamations of the manager were accurate and not just hopeful press conference utterances designed to boost his confidence. He was weak against Stoke as they opened the scoring in the first couple of minutes. Instead of dealing with the long throw he allowed himself to be outmuscled and Stoke scored.
Then came Porto. He threw a tame cross into his own net and picked up a back pass which resulted in their second. His chance to redeem himself seemed a good one against Wigan, Arsenal were 2-0 up and cruising until they let one in and Fabianski went to pieces, dropping a routine corner on the head of Titus Bramble. The result wasn’t all his fault, not by a long way, but his skittishness contributed to the defeat. The manager praised his performance against Man City on Saturday, I understand why, but the truth is he had nothing whatsoever to do.
Over the course of the season Almunia and Fabianski have been given chances that other goalkeepers in Wenger’s reign would not. David Seaman was a fantastic keeper but by the end he could barely get off the ground. Those who came and went included Alex Manninger, Richard Wright, Stuart Taylor, Rabi Shaaban and Guillaume Warmuz. None of the challengers were considered good enough, all of them were dispatched to continue their careers elsewhere. It was only when Wenger signed Lehmann that he let Seaman go, confident that he had the right man. We went from Safe Hands to Safe Hans.
The problem, of course, is that when your number 1 is struggling you need a player understudying who is good enough to put pressure on him. Fabianski seems a nice young man but is clearly unable to cope with the pressure of first team football. Maybe it’s just at a club like Arsenal, if he went to a mid-table side perhaps he’d be fine, but Wenger’s reluctance to drop Almunia can only be explained by his reluctance to use Fabianski.
It’s easy to say that goalkeeping is a ‘weak spot’ for the manager but the evidence shows that he knows what’s expected from a number 1. When the challenger to that position hasn’t been good enough his Arsenal career has been terminated, often with extreme ruthlessness. Should we believe that all of a sudden Arsene has forgotten what a good goalkeeper looks like? That doesn’t make much sense to me, yet at the end of the day he’s the one who has allowed this situation to develop.
Personally, I think he was right to consider Almunia his number 1 for this season. I know some people have never been convinced but the previous two campaigns were solid, if not spectacular. There was no reason why he couldn’t at least maintain that level of performance. Instead he regressed in a big way. Similarly, despite some hairy moments, Fabianski was promising, a Polish international, who made rookie mistakes but would probably get better with experience. Instead, he cracked under the pressure of top level football.
I understand what he’s saying in this piece but would Wenger persist with a centre-half who, every time he came into the side, made fresh air kicks allowing opposing strikers to score easy goals? I don’t think so. I realise being a goalkeeper means every mistake is highlighted but, you know, tough shit. That’s the nature of the job and unfortunately for him, and for us, he’s not up to it.
There are many things we can learn from this season in terms of how we’ve played, how we’ve fallen short etc etc, but for me the most obvious one is that we need a new goalkeeper. We need to stop scraping around the bargain basements of Europe, identify a player who can be the Arsenal goalkeeper for the next 10 seasons and go out and buy him. In recent years there has been a dearth of top quality options, I’ll admit that, but when the manager can look around now and see players like Akinfeev, Craig Gordon, Joe Hart, Hugo Lloris and others all available for the right price this summer he’s got no excuse to sort out what is a fundamental flaw in this Arsenal team.
A good keeper is the base of your spine, when your keeper has osteoporosis you are going to struggle. It’s time to cut our losses with Almunia and Fabianski, say ‘thanks chaps, but cheerio’ and bring in a player who can make our team a lot better. I know there’s a lot of talk about Wojciech Szczesny but unless this kid really is as special as someone like Iker Cassilas, and I’m not sure he is, then promoting a 19 year to be our number 1 next season would be another hopeful swing in the dark. That said, he’s clearly a decent, ambitious young goalkeeper and there are high hopes within the club for him. He would certainly provide the kind of competition that every top player needs to thrive. If whoever we buy knows that his number 2 is just itching to get in the team and take his place then it can only be a good thing for him … and Arsenal.
I said yesterday that I still believe Arsene is the right man for the job at Arsenal. His summer spending will go a long to prove or disprove that. If he hasn’t addressed the goalkeeping problem by the end of the transfer window I would start to have second thoughts.
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Not a lot else happening really. There’s some vague transfer speculation surrounding Serbian defender Neven Subotic but nothing concrete. Is there ever?
To finish today, a quick competition. I’ve got three DVD copies of Arsenal Match of the 70s which includes highlights from games throughout the decade and also includes post match analysis and interviews with players like George Armstrong, Brian Kidd and others.
To win all you have to do is answer the following question:
How many FA Cup finals did Arsenal appear in during the 70s?
Answers, as usual, to [email protected] and I’ll announce the winners in tomorrow’s blog.
Arsenal Match of the 70s is available from www.tikabooson.com RRP £17.99 tikabooson.com price £10.99
And that’s about that, have a good day, cross fumblers.
