Poles Apart!

Premier League goalkeepers are a rare and mad breed. To have a job which involves balls being smashed at you day in and day out by players who are the best in the world at smashing them must mean somewhere deep down inside there is a screw loose. That mixture of part madness and part fearlessness is the hallmark of any good goalkeeper around the world and for whatever reason if the mixture isn’t right their performance suffers…just ask Mr. Cech. Like professional boxers you want your goalkeepers to be confident, cocky and have a strong personality because when you’re putting your body in danger for your team like no other player in any other position, you don’t want there to be any second thoughts or hesitations.

Arsenal have down the years been blessed with some of the best to have played the game between the posts. From Bob Wilson (308 appearances) and Pat Jennings (327 appearance) to David Seaman (563 appearance) and Jens Lehmann (199 appearances). More recently we have struggled to find keepers that fit the mould. Almunia whilst good in spurts, the best performance coming against Barcelona, had too little fearlessness and too much madness. His confidence was shattered to the core by every mistake no matter how minor which he could not put behind him and his unexplainable regularity in running like a mad man out of his box was costly for the team. His shaky performances and lack of confidence had an obvious effect on the back four and even left the crowd nervous with every corner or cross. As a result he was marginalised and Fabianski was brought in as the answer and then condemned as the problem quicker than any other Arsenal player I can remember. This led to us recalling a lad who we had loaned out to Brentford the previous season, who our keeping coaches labelled with great potential (although the same was said of Fabianski). Wojciech Szczesny the 20 year old young pretender strutted into the team and exuded confidence and composure that was out of kilter with his age. As he plays more games his importance in the team has grown and it would be wrong to talk about an improved defence without mentioning the contribution of the young Pole.

Although there hasn’t been enough game time yet to have any meaningful statistical comparisons, you don’t need numbers to tell you that Szczesny is far better than anyone else we have at the club and is being rated as one of the best in the premiership. Despite ability, goalkeepers need to be able to command their defence. The game escapes me but I remember seeing Szczesny manhandling the defence to put them where they should have been before an opposition corner. For someone so young that shows remarkable leadership and fearlessness…tick! Put that together with him leading the Arsenal fans in a chant of ‘We’re by far the greatest team…’ and kissing RVP’s left boot after the wonder goal against Everton show his personality and madness…tick tick!

His performances and demeanour have made him a fan favourite this season and he definitely has the potential to make that position his own for many years to come just as Arsenal keepers of old have done. What Arsene must do is make sure that there is sufficient cover and competition because as the title mentions Szczesny and Fabianski are poles apart!