Arsenal’s goalkeeping in serious question
With the transfer window now firmly shut, it would be a good time to assess whether Arsenal can make a push for the title.
The reason why Arsenal’s credentials must be judged after the end of the transfer window hinges on a simple question. Will Arsene Wenger sign a goalkeeper? For many fans of the North London club, their only glaring weakness in the last season or so has been their goalkeeping department. The club’s number one goalie Manuel Almunia is a reliable enough keeper yet persistent criticism on him is there for not being proficient enough.
Almunia has been culpable over the last few seasons of making too few saves. Of course, this statistic must depend on how exposed a keeper is, but still there is a feeling that Almunia should really be making a few more stops. His sense of positioning has been called into question and Arsenal fans struggle to think of a game where he had saved a point or produced a performance to earn his side a battling victory. According to the purists, a good goalkeeping during a league campaign will at least earn you 10-15 points. That may sound like a high estimate but even a half of those points in Arsenal’s bank last season would have seen them win in the crucial stages of the campaign.
Almunia has been unable to come up with a performance to justify manager Wenger’s faith in him. The only thing that goes into Almunia’s favor is that he does make spectacular clangers. Also, there are no major mistakes that he has made which could be used as an argument against him. However, all the goals conceded against him have looked like they could have been saved but haven’t been saved. This is probably the reason why he was not even mentioned as a possible candidate for the English squad even when the national team was in doldrums in terms of their goalkeeping performances.
So Almunia doesn’t make big mistakes; he just makes a lot of small ones. One key example of this could be found in the semi-final of the Champions League when Arsenal met Manchester United a few years ago. Already leading, United’s then talisman Cristiano Ronaldo unleashed a 35 yard free-kick which seemed unstoppable on first viewing. However, as the replays showed, despite the pace and accuracy of the free-kick, it would have been simply saved had Almunia’s positioning been adequate but it wasn’t.
It was on account of his growing number of mistakes that Wenger announced the intention to get a new keeper this summer. His key target was Australian giant Mark Schwarzer of Fulham. Although, Arsenal bid twice for the Australian international but were still unable to prize him from Craven Cottage. Schwarzer had shown in the Europa League last season and also in the Premier League that he is still one of the safest pairs of hands. Additionally, he has been excellent for a long time now.
It seems Wenger will now have to persevere with Almunia at least until January, next year. In the light of such submissions, can Arsenal really challenge the title? They are currently second in the table behind champions Chelsea and have so far looked good. Even Almunia played well in their last outing against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. The obvious answer is that Arsenal’s chances have gone down with no recruitment of a new keeper. However, if they can be lucky with certain elements and hope Almunia could also cut out on his mistakes; the Arsenal squad has enough quality to carry them over the finish line in the first spot. Of course, all of that will depend on the Spaniard.
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