Wenger praises Fabianski
The much criticised and often looked down upon Arsenal keeper, Lukasz Fabianski was scheduled to fill in for Manuel Almunia. The Polish keeper was scheduled to have a terrible night but managed to surprise everyone, by having one of his most solid performances
to date.
Manuel Almunia picked up a knock in Arsenal’s weekend clash against West Brom. Arsenal went on to lose that game, by a score line of three goals to two and the man responsible for Arsenal’s defeat was none other than the Spanish keeper, Almunia.
Fabianski, who has often been voted to be the only player on earth, who can make Almunia look good, quite simply out shone his Spanish team mate on the night. The keeper even managed to save a penalty and went on to make a breath taking acrobatic save in
the dying few minutes of the match.
"Fabianski had a good game, we have seen the player who we see in training. He had a faultless game," said the Arsenal boss. "I know it is in him. He got it out in the game and hopefully that will give him the needed belief and confidence."
The Arsenal manager then went on to add: "I am confident he will come out as a great keeper, I have always said that. We have to keep confidence in him and he needs to gain experience from games like this."
This brilliant display might even help the keeper get a call up, when Arsenal travel to the Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea at their home ground. However if Almunia does not recover in time Wenger would not have any other option but to play Fabianski.
None the less Fabianski might just manage to take over the number one jersey at the club if Almunia continues to cost Arsenal more points in the future.
Wenger said: "At the moment Almunia is injured, we will have to see how his injury goes, but at the moment it is too early to say."
Arsenal were going into their game, with a lack of most of their star players and after some early pressure from the home side, Arsenal managed to score the opener through Andrei Arshavin.
However Partizan soon equalized, after a penalty was awarded thanks to a hand ball in the area by Denilson.
In the second half, Partizan were down to ten men and that was the cue for Marouane Chamakh and Sebastian Squillaci to give the visiting team from North London the two goal cushion in the game.
The game would have ended in much more dramatic fashion, had Fabianski not managed to pull of those breath taking saves in the dying stages of the match.
However despite Fabianski pulling through such a good performance, it doesn’t mean that Wenger doesn’t need to go around looking for a new World Class keeper in January. Despite Fabianski proving that he can actually goal keep, he still hasn’t proven that
he can be a consistent force in between the sticks at the club.
The clubs fans will be hoping that Wenger realizes this factor and decides to finally go ahead and sign a keeper in the January transfer window. What this would do is, that it would allow Arsenal to have one primary keeper for the short run, while they have
one in training for the future, which seems to be a win win situation for everyone.
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