Perhaps more than any other position the one of goalkeeper has sparked most debate this season. From Manuel Almunia’s early and consistent loss of form to Vito Mannone’s wonderful display against Fulham which which was followed up by some typically rookie performances, there’s been plenty to talk about it. Almunia’s injury ahead of this game gave Lukasz Fabianski a chance and many fans were hoping this would be the night he would live up to the potential that the manager claims he has. Before the game Arsene said he was talented, intelligent and outstanding, lacking only experience.
Sadly the young Pole left the manager with a rather large helping of egg on his face. In the cold light of day I feel sorry for him, to do what he did last night might well have scuppered his Arsenal career, but he had an absolute shocker. There’s no two ways about it, it was one of the most calamitous, disastrous goalkeeping performances I have ever seen.
Porto’s first goal came in the 11th minute and it was a gift. Yes, Gael Clichy might have done better out on the left (seems an all too familiar refrain that), but Varela’s cross was bread and butter stuff for any goalkeeper. Somehow Fabianski contrived to chuck it into his own net. Sunday League players would hold their heads in despair if their 51 year old, hungover, half blind, somewhat lame and one armed keeper did that. For a professional at a club like Arsenal playing the Champions League it’s simply not good enough.
To be fair to the team we rallied in the first half and I thought we came back into it well. Porto had started brightly, Sol Campbell forced into a desperate but brilliant tackle in the first minute, and Hulk fired one just wide after we got cut open down our left hand side. They looked dangerous but we survived and got going. Nasri had an effort and when a Bendtner shot deflected just wide we equalised from the corner. Cesc took it, it was flicked on to the back post where Rosicky headed it back across goal and Sol Campbell was standing unmarked inside the 6 yard box to head home. His last Arsenal goal was in the Champions League final. Some might say it’s not good luck when he scores in Europe but that away goal is going to be vital, I’m sure of it.
We looked better for the goal. Rosicky forced a decent save from the keeper and Bendtner’s header was looping in until last minute fingertips put it over the bar. I felt at half time that we’d weathered the storm and we could certainly take the game to them in the second half. And initially we did. I thought we were very much on the front foot and then the referee, who was rubbish all night it has to be said, made his first really bad decision. Arsenal should have had a penalty when Tomas Rosicky was fouled in the box, instead Martin Hannson waved play on. It was to be costly.
As the ball went up the other end Sol Campbell was shepherding the ball back to the keeper but got a touch. I’m not entirely sure it was accidental but either way Fabianski should have just put his foot through it. Inexplicably he picked it up. He handed the ball to the referee who put it on the ground, Porto took it, the ref signalled that the free kick was to be taken after they had taken it, stood in Sol Campbell’s way as he did so, and Porto had the easiest of finishes to make it 2-1. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it before. Arsene was furious afterwards saying the ref had made a ‘massive mistake’ and while you can certainly criticise him for the way he got in the way and the way he signalled the free kick, the massive mistake was Fabianski’s.
Quite what he was thinking when he picked it up I don’t think we’ll ever know. I don’t really blame him for giving the ball back to the ref when he asked for it and there is a measure of blame to be apportioned to the defence who switched off. Going back to Sunday league football the first thing you hear when you have a free kick against you is ‘Stand in front of it!’. You don’t allow them to take it quickly whether it’s 50 yards out or inside the penalty area. So from that point of view we could have done better defensively but it all comes back to the keeper. If he hadn’t picked it up it wouldn’t have been an issue.
As I said, I feel sorry for him. The last thing any of us wants is to see an Arsenal player make mistakes like that but it’s quite clear that Fabianski was the root cause of Porto’s two goals last night and his reputation, which wasn’t brilliant to start with, has taken a right battering. We had hoped he might show that he has what it takes to be Arsenal’s number 1, he had a great chance to show he’s up to the job, and he failed miserably. The bottom line for me is that he is error prone and not only does he cost us goals, he costs us games. His appearances have been few and far between but when you think of him you think of the Chelsea FA Cup semi-final, the Stoke game where he was poor for their first goal, and last night which proved that he is just not up to the task. I might qualify that with ‘at the moment’ but how many chances can you give a keeper who consistently makes high profile mistakes?
To be fair to him he did have some good moments, made a couple of decent saves, but nothing you wouldn’t expect any keeper at a top flight club to make. The errors are what people will remember and the errors are what cost Arsenal last night’s match. The more this season progresses the more obvious it is that the goalkeeping situation at the club needs to be sorted once and for all. There is only one way to do this – and that is for the manager to go out and the spend the kind of money that will bring a top class keeper to this club. We’re expecting Porsche performances from Skodas at the moment, no wonder we’re constantly disappointed.
After the second goal I thought we struggled. From a position where I thought we could go on and win it we just never got going again. The ref has to take his share of the blame, had he awarded the penalty it would obviously have been much different, but Porto played very defensively, looking to catch us on the break. Individual performances I won’t go into only to mention their rather obvious and deliberate tactic of kicking Cesc out of the game. It worked, for the most part, but what was most disappointing to me was that none of our other players took it upon themselves to protect the captain or at least give them a bit back. Maybe it’s a measure of the characters in the side that this wouldn’t occur to them but he was deliberately targetted and we did little to help him.
Afterwards a visibly upset Cesc was critical of the goals we conceded and the way the team failed to react:
Schoolboy’s goal, what can you do? Nothing, nothing to complain. After the second goal we went down, maybe we are still a little bit soft in that aspect as a team when we concede a goal maybe sometimes we are not strong enough to lift ourselves up. That’s what happened really, we were not strong enough to stand up and play well but until the second goal I think we were having a very good game.
And I couldn’t argue with a word of that. While Arsene Wenger has rightly enough refused to publicly criticise Fabianski the captain’s words are harsh but honest. And the observation that we weren’t strong enough to ‘lift ourselves up’ is far more damning. And perhaps it hints a little at what I said, we allowed them to kick our captain all night long without standing up to that kind of treatment. Ultimately though, with so many injuries it was more a lack of quality that prevented us from getting back into the game. Trying to break down a Porto side that had gone into a defensive/counter attacking shell would always be tough but too many of the individual performances fell short of what we needed to do that.
Nevertheless, before we wallow in the gloom, I don’t think this tie is over by any means. Last night was horrible and hugely disappointing but I don’t see any reason why we can’t do them at the Grove. We beat them 4-0 on their last visit and although that scoreline is unlikely again, I think we can win and progress. Obviously we need to play better, obviously we need to cut out the individual mistakes which have been so costly this season, but I don’t see Porto’s lead as insurmountable at all.
What we’ve got to do is pick ourselves up and get ready for Saturday. There is simply no time for feeling sorry for ourselves. Last night was a blow but not a fatal one. We cannot allow heads to drop like they did last night. As Amy Lawrence points out after the second goal ‘Concentration popped. Self-pity ruled‘. Heads have to be lifted, Sunderland must feel the backlash and we have to get some momentum going before what is going to be a massive second leg in a couple of weeks time.
Till tomorrow.
