Arsene Wenger stands by Manuel Almunia
Arsenal Boss Arsene Wenger has stood by his goalkeeper Manuel Almunia following his team’s shock 3-2 loss against West Brom on Saturday. The un-fancied West Brom took a surprising 3-0 lead at the Emirates before Samir Nasri pulled a couple back.
The first mistake from Spanish goalkeeper came when he charged forward in the first half and gave away a penalty, and earned himself a yellow card for his troubles. However, he did make a manse by saving the spot kick. His problems though did not end there,
in the 2nd half he kneeled down to save a harmless shot from Jara but it bounced off his leg and into the back of the net. That is all that can go wrong for a keeper you would think right? Well there was more to come, Almunia decided to charge forward
on the by-line to collect the ball but maybe realised he was on a yellow card and pulled back leaving an open goal for Wets Brom’s 3rd.
All this came after there was huge debate in the summer about goalkeeping weakness at Arsenal. Arsene Wenger did try hard to get Mark Schwarzer from Fulham but could not get his man. And in the end the manager had to stick with Almunia.
Wenger remained behind his keeper after severe backlash from fans and critics from all over, following the disastrous performance by Almunia against the Baggies.
Arsenal is currently in 3rd place 4 points behind the league leaders Chelsea. Wenger said that the loss was not down to the errors of Almunia, and it was down to the whole team to lift the level of their game.
"I don't think it was down to one player," said Wenger. "I think our level of focus on the job was not right.
"I believe you can include all the defenders as well. They all made massive mistakes, so it would not be right to blame one player more than any other.
"We came back, we didn't give up and that was the positive. We fought until the last second but we started too late, and we have to learn from what happened. We cannot repeat that kind of performance."
The next match for Arsenal is an away game against Partizan Belgrade in the Champions League in midweek. It is a crucial encounter for the gunners; the manager insists that he would not risk Jack Wilshere who is on his way to recovery after a couple of niggling
injuries.
Wilshere was fielded by Wenger in the Carling Cup tie against the city rivals Tottenham and the teenager was quite impressive in the 4-1 win. The 18-year-old though did not start against West Brom and was sent on from the bench in the 2nd half.
Wenger said that after recovering from injuries a player needs to be looked after and should not be forced to play too many games.
"He has played many games recently and we don't want to burn him," said Wenger."He played 120 minutes on Tuesday so I decided to give him a rest. I don't think the changes affected the team, it was the level of focus.”
Meanwhile West Brom’s boss Roberto Di Matteo was over the moon following the big win by his team at the Emirates. West Brom have now qualified to 5th place in the league table.
It was the first win for the baggies at the home of Arsenal for 27 years, and the manager was understandably proud of his team.
"To play the way we did at Emirates takes a bit of courage," said Di Matteo. "It is three points and fantastic for us. It is a difficult place for us to come and win but we hoped to get some points from the top four, the big teams, and it was good that we
managed to get three today. Jerome was excellent, but not only him, the whole team played very well. We needed everybody to have a good performance.”
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