Arsene Wenger hails Lucas Fabianski and Samir Nasri
Arsenal has long been hampered by lack of a quality goalkeeper, since the German Yans Lehman left the club. Arsene Wenger, the club manager tried his best to bring Australian Mark Schwarzer to the Emirates in the summer. It is well known that the manager
does not have a lot of confidence in his 2 goalkeepers, Spanish Manuel Almunia and Polish Lucas Fabianski. Both made big howlers last season and are vulnerable to mistakes in big matches.
Manuel Almunia did nothing to change that as he again made 2 big mistakes in the 3-2 defeat against West Brom. Almunia let one goal in that went off his thigh while made a bad call on coming half way for the 2nd goal. The Spaniard was sent to
the bench after that and Fabianski got the chance from then on. Lucas though has not shown any shades of the mistakes he made last season. The Pole has been in spectacular form especially in last 5 games and has looked flawless.
The Polish international was completely on his game in the all important match against Manchester City. Arsenal won the match 3-0 but what that score line does not show is the number of excellent saves Fabianski made during the 90 minutes.
After the match, Wenger hinted that he may make Lucas Fabianski his number one goalkeeper in place of Manuel Almunia.
"I don't say that definitely he will be No. 1 because you always need the freedom to change when it is really needed. But look at his performances. You can't fault him at all. From game to game, he shows what I see in training. In our job, sometimes, you
have to be prepared to fight a bit against opinions”, said Wenger.
The manager added that Fabianski is finally realising the talent in him and even Almunia is not far behind but he is just a bit low on confidence for now.
While shifting focus from Fabianski and Almunia, the manager also praised his French midfielder, Samir Nasri. Wenger said that Nasri has always had the pace and skill but it was just the matter of him putting all of that to good use. Wenger added that it
does not come to him as a big surprise as he always believed that Nasri had much more to offer.
Wenger maintained that Nasri has worked on the physical side of his game recently. The manager stated that Samir Nasri is physically much stronger now, and can work his way through defenders who try to overpower him and that is a big reason for the improvement
in his game.
Arsene Wenger, also known as the Professor, said that a player usually blossoms from the age of 24 onwards, and Nasri at 23 may just be getting to the peak of his powers and there may be a lot more to come from him in the future.
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