Written by Mean Lean on Monday, 27 September 2010 19:55

I was planning to move away from the goalkeeping debate this evening and look forward to something else but after finding out that Manuel Almunia has picked up an injury, I don't think I can quite get away with that this evening. It was either after Almunia fouled Odemwingie or after his penalty save, we saw Almunia holding the side of his arm. It may explain why Almunia did not slide out to meet Brunt in the box when Brunt set up Thomas for the West Brom third.

So to Lukasz Fabianski, everyone's favourite goalkeeper. He will almost certainly pick up the gloves for our upcoming clash away to Partizan Belgrade.

It is a very difficult time for him to be coming into the side with all eyes being angrily looked at the direction of the goalkeepers, in some ways it may actually benefit him that we are playing away from home and not in front of the home support, this may just take a bit of the pressure away from his shoulders.

I am hoping that he can put in a good performance and ease some of the huge pressure building up from the summer. This was always going to happen, as soon as a new goalkeeper did not find his way into the club we were always going to find ourselves in this position as soon as an error was made. I can understand the frustration as we all want as close to perfection as possible.

I was one of those who thought that a new goalkeeper would have been a good move in the summer but that was just not to be for whatever reason. Clearly we tried to bring in someone and after watching some Fulham highlights thus far, I can now agree with the camp that suggested that he was not better than what we already had.

I was pretty much a lone voice in the comments yesterday when I suggested that Almunia had been one of our better performers so far this season, I stand by that. His mistake for the West Brom second goal was bad, very bad but my point was let us not get all suicidal after one game.

At the moment we have what we have, we all want better, all the time in every position but at present we cannot do anything about that. If Almunia could play as he did against Blackburn every week then we wouldn't be having this debate so all we can do is hope that he can get that consistency, that consistency that he hasn't been able to have in his game for a little while now.

Young prospect Wojciech Szczesny is also included in the squad which is quite interesting, especially given the fact that Vito Mannone was above him in the pecking order last season. I don't know if Mannone is injured or not, to be honest I am being too lazy to find out.

Anyway, moving on. Arsene Wenger has said that his side will regroup for the game tomorrow. I hope they all had a good old fashioned dressing down and told to look long and hard into the mirror at themselves. Only really Samir Nasri came out of the game with any real credit and that is not right.

Most title winning sides go through these kind of results and it is how you bounce back from results and performances like we witnessed on the weekend.

Like many will, I remember an Arsenal team being beaten 3-1 at home to Blackburn Rovers, a truly awful display which called for a team meeting. That group of players addressed the issues, corrected them and went on to steam towards the title in 1997/1998.

Admittedly that squad had plenty of leaders and experience which would have made a big difference but it is time to put aside the lack of experience in this squad, they have all played enough football in their collective careers to know what it takes to win games at home against weaker opposition.

Like I have said, we have the most talented squad in the league, that I am almost certain of, it is now down to the mental strengths of the players in true Arsene style. If we have another season where the players pick and choose which games they perform in then we can wave away any chance of silverware, apart from the West Brom game we have shown great desire and attitude so let us hope that the West Brom walkabout was just a one off and not a regular theme, because if we give our all in every game then I am convinced that we can have a successful title challenge.

I have to admit that I am concerned as to what a defeat in the game tomorrow could do to the players, especially with Chelsea at the Bridge the next fixture. A win and good performance is vital to our season just for the momentum and confidence of the players.

Almost as interesting as the goalkeeper swap. is the exclusion of Abou Diaby from the squad for tomorrow's game. I wonder if that is for fitness reasons or due to his performance at the weekend. Wenger is not usually one for not giving player a second chance so it could well mean that Diaby isn't fit enough to take part, he didn't look 100% against West Brom.

Henri Lansbury has been promoted to the first team after his all action display against Tottenham in the CC. Perhaps that is a warning to other squad members, hard work and determination gets noticed.

Ok, before I disappear for another day I just want to say that I know there is an issue with the paragraphing in the comments, this is a coding issue that needs to be resolved with the erm coder. We are waiting for a response.

Back again with a match preview.

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Comments (7)

• 27-Sep-2010 20:18 | | tom
  

  i know its a bad thing but i realy hope flapyanski injers himself before the game and the other pole gets the chance

• 27-Sep-2010 21:00 | | Goonerfish
  

  You're not alone ML.
  
  I defended Almunia in my own blog too. I really think he is being made a scapegoat for what in all honesty was a dissappointing display by our whole team (Nasri excluded). Koscielny has, I think, been excellent so far this year but it was his man that scored West Brom's first and he was no where near close enough to the attacker for the second goal. The shot that Almunia fumbled should never of been hit but Koscielny has not been singled out at all. (Just to point out I'm not trying to shift blame to Kos, just making the point Almunia was the only one to make mistakes)
  
  I'm also concerned by Almunia's injury. Have you noticed that after a run of bad performances last year Almunia was always 'injured' for a few games. Almunia is a confidence player and when he takes a hit like this he takes ages to get over it. As bad as it sounds I hope he really is injured and he recovers before Chelsea and comes back full of confidence.
  

• 27-Sep-2010 22:10 | | Sam  - Diaby
  

  Sadly I think Diaby is just being rested for Chelsea, in which case we will be beaten. He hinders our play so much. It's no wonder Nasri became more effective when Diaby was replaced by Wilshere.

• 28-Sep-2010 01:15 | | ArseMan  - Incorrect....
  

  Almunia hasn't been made the scapegoat. Fact is, he was to blame for the second goal, soley to blame. Kos positioned himself quite well, he made it so the attacker could shoot but from a hard angle. There is nothing wrong in that and any text book will tell you to show the attacked the outside rather than inside.................He could've been slightly closer, but that is down to the GK, telling him to close down the attacker............ Almunia's positoning was terrible. He wasn't far enough forward, he needed to be past his near post, so if anything does cannon off you or you can't hold it, it should go wide or you can push it wide. He was too far back so the shot that he misjudged, flew into the net............... that is poor and really basic stuff. That's the point here, our GK's are making very basic errors time and time again.............Wenger only has himself to blame at the moment. He didn't want to spend much on a GK. If he'd been prepared to pay a decent sum, he could've got something better than what we have...........Almunia isn't consistent enough, and now his confidence is f*cked again. Which means, he's more of a jittery mess........... Our last 3 main GK's, Lukic, Seaman, Lehmann - they won a few league titles, FA cups, european trophies...... since Lehmanns decline, we've won nothing.

• 28-Sep-2010 01:21 | | ArseMan
  

  Oh, yes - it was an awful team performance. But perhaps, at 1-0 had that shocking 2nd goal not gone in so easily, we might have gone on to turn it around........It's moments like that, that can turn games.......had the GK have save that, like he should've, it would've stayed 1-0. Yes, West Brom did play very well and deserve credit for that. But at 1-0, we might have built up a head of steam. They scored their 1st goal on 50 mins, then that second came on 52 mins. It gifted them a 2 goal cushion and gave us a real kick in the teeth........ Like I said, had that glaring error not been made, we could've perhaps got ourselves going like we have done in the past when we've gone 1-0 down. We finally wake up and get going a bit. We didn't get the chance to do that, as the 2nd came so quickly, courtesy of Almunia.

• 28-Sep-2010 06:32 | | drew10
  

  Arseman
  
  Interestingly you mention Lukic, I seem to remember a similar groundswell calling for his head as that of Almunia. So to hold him up as a shinning example of what Almunia should be is odd at best.
  
  That said, getting rid of Lukic led to the purchase of David Seaman probably the best English goalkeeper of all time.

• 28-Sep-2010 11:19 | | Law  - Fabianski will show his quality
  

  Wenger said Fabianski will show his quality.
  
  And i believe he will. From ZERO to MINUS 10.

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