Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

So in the end disappointment.  Barcelona were the better team last night and they won.

They weren’t the better team for the usual sublime skills that generally have you singing their praises for the silky passes.  Arsenal can do that bit too.  Last night they demonstrated the other side of their game – the determination to press their opponents on every inch of the pitch.

If you take the ball off Barcelona, they want it back. Always and straight away. It doesn’t matter if you are back in the corner at your end. They still want it back. They don’t think about ‘their end’ or ‘your end’, they just think about the ball and want it back.

Early in the first half, Nasri had the ball near the corner flag at our end.  Barcelona won it back.  It took four of them to do it and at the time I smiled at Nasri’s skill.  But the point was that, even though it took four of them, they had the ball back before Arsenal could even get across the half way line.  And so it went on.

Van Persie Red Card
That has to be one of the softest dismissals I’ve ever seen.  Van Persie contributed in getting the first yellow for losing his cool, but the second yellow was outrageous.  Barely a second passed between the whistle for offside and Van Persie taking a shot on goal.  To get sent off for that was so massively disproportionate it left me speechless.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

At first I thought there must have been some incident off-camera.  I was waiting for the TV Producer to run some replay that explained the appearance of the ref card.  But no.  It was a yellow and red for carrying on for one second after the whistle for off-side.  Something that happens countless times in every game, including last night.  Unbelievable!

Arsenal line-up
I was surprised to see Rosicky start.  When I thought about the team decisions Wenger had to take I hadn’t even thought about Rosicky.  He worked hard, putting heart and soul into the game.  I thought that he got the balance about right in terms of when to drop deep and help Sagna and when to stay in space to provide a way forward, but he didn’t have the pace or control on the ball to be enough of a threat.

Van Persie was clearly fit enough to be on the pitch, but not fit enough to make as much impact as he can.  I thought he wasn’t risking 100%, fearful of his fitness.  It was probably worth the gamble, but thanks to the mind-blowing decision of the referee we’ll never know.

First Barcelona Goal
Terrible and unusual mistake from Cesc.  The way that Barcelona were energetically pressing in numbers round the ball, the back heal was way too risky.

The Arsenal Goal
Even this was scored by Barcelona! But it was a good corner from Nasri and a great leap from Diaby, who still missed the ball but unsighted Busquets for an own goal.

Goalkeepers
We started the season with four first team keepers, now we’re down to Almunia.  Presumably Mannone or Shea will have to return to sit on the bench now.  Unlucky injury for Szczesny.  Almunia actually did very well and can’t be blamed for the goals.  He kept us in the game.

Abidal
Eric Abidal somehow got away with grabbing Robin Van Persie by the throat without being spotted.  Ironic given the advert they run at half-time about the extra match officials – “now we see more”!  Maybe there will be retrospective action after the UEFA comments after the Rooney incident.

C’mon Arsenal
All-in-all a disappointing night, but not too much of a shock.  Thanks to our first leg-win and the own-goal we were only one strike from going through right up until the end.  The team gave their all last night but were out-played.

Let’s try and take it out on Man Utd.  C’mon Arsenal!

***** Man of the Match poll running here. *****

The Sun has started off much speculation this morning about Fabianski not starting this evening. They say that a minor groin strain mid-week hasn’t gone away and that he won’t play. Others are saying late test.

Everybody is assuming that the stand-in will be Szczesny.  No-one is suggesting Almunia.  Personally I would go along with that, although I really hope that Fabianski will be fit and play.

Almunia has always struck me as a nice guy and I wish him well, but I think that he was always intended as a stop-gap. The problem being that Fabianski didn’t seem to be developing fast enough.  Now Fabianski has been getting a good run in goal and he is better than Almunia.  He may not be the one, long-term, but for now I think he is.

Anyways, Almunia isn’t the future – Szczesny could be.  Will Almunia sit on the bench if Szczesny is in goal?  You could understand if the idea pissed him off in a major way but Wenger might try to sweet-talk him into it rather than have youngster James Shea on the bench!

Either way, I think that Almunia will be gone by the end of January.

It’s widely reported that Wojciech Szczesny is stalling on his new contract. On the one hand I wouldn’t blame him.  Arsenal’s strategy over keepers has been far from clear!

Plus that’s the way contract negotiations seem to go these days – a well-placed leak here and there, adding a bit of pressure.  On the other hand, I would have thought things weren’t developing to badly from his point of view.

So what happens next with Arsenal goalkeepers?

Do we think Almunia is really that badly injured, or did a lighter knock give Wenger the excuse to let Fabianski have a run in the team?  Either way, I think it’s good thing.  As I’ve posted before, Arsenal know everything they are ever going to know about Manuel Almunia.  It’s time to find out about Fabianski for real.  I hope his run goes on a while.

I wouldnt be surprised if the one definite Arsenal goalkeeper move was the departure of Almunia.  Vito Mannone has gone out on loan.  I would have thought that was a good signal for Szczesny as well.  It could be to give more experience, but it strikes me more as a shop window job.

Aresnal certainly don’t need four first-team keepers and probably don’t need three.  Don’t forget we’ve also got James Shea back down the track.

Personally I think Arsenal should bid for a better and experienced keeper than all of the above but you don’t always get what you want and Manchester United are in the market too.

Plan B is probably Fabianski number one and Szczesny number two, with the departure of Almunia and Mannone.  Szczesny will probably wait to see what happens in the window before he puts pen to paper.

The Arsenal goalkeeper saga rumbles on and will dog the club until January at the earliest.  We’ve got ourselves into the situation where we have four first team keepers, who of course all want to play, plus the expectation that we are still in the market for another.

Every goalkeeper in the world seems fair game for a ‘linked to Arsenal’ story.  Goonersaur lists twelve keepers we are apparently monitoring, despite missing out one that Caught Offside touted on Saturday.

Some football agents seem to think they are serving their clients by getting their names out there, journalists have pages to fill everyday and websites all love the traffic.  Arsenal fans surfing the web are desperate for any news.   I did a post called ‘Arsenal goalkeeper rumours‘ back in August and got a massive spike in site stats, it’s still the second highest scoring page.  So there are plenty of reasons why this isn’t going away.

In the meantime, by which I means at least until 1st January, we have: four keepers who can read anywhere they like that they are not good enough; four keepers who all want to play; three keepers each week who feel pissed off; two keepers who don’t have anywhere to go on a Saturday and one keeper between the sticks each week with all of this on their shoulders trying to keep goal.

Even ardent Wenger fans, and I’m still pretty keen, have to admit we’ve made a dog’s dinner of this!

So what to do between now and the new year, and which goalkeeping rumours make any sense?

Now until the New Year

I don’t think there’s a massive amount to choose between Almunia and Fabianski.  I think that they have similar strengths and weaknesses.  On the upside, they are both agile shot-stoppers who are at the their best in open play situations or facing penalties.  On the downside they can both be indecisive and get stranded between positioning options or a flapping too far from a high ball.

Is it about confidence, skill or experience?  Probably a bit of all three and not the same mix for both.  Given that Fabianski has just had two of his best performances in a row, I’d be inclined to give Almunia’s injured elbow a bit longer and keep him in the team for Birmingham.  A successful run in the team would give him experience and confidence.  Maybe enough to inform the club what to do with him January.

The best you can do for Szczesny and Mannone is alternate them on the bench or send one out on loan.  It isn’t ideal but it’s about all they can get at the moment.  I don’t think there is that much to choose between them at the moment.  Szczesny was the more popular when we ran a poll last month, but I know that Mannone has his fans too.

Making sense of the rumours

Most transfer rumour are rubbish of course.  But what sort of keeper makes sense for Arsenal. Only two I think. Option 1, is splash the cash for a really top keeper.  You could call that the Buffon option.  Option two is less cash for someone who isn’t one of the biggest names, but has proved themselves as a confident, self-assured, experienced keeper who is always in the right place, even if their time of cat-like agility is behind them.  You could call that the Schwarzer option.

Whichever you go for, you then let three of the existing four go, leaving one as reserve and Shea as back-up.

I don’t see the point of another unproven keeper aged under twenty-five (the Begovic option). That wouldn’t make the choice any clearer than it is now.

And you resolve never to get into the situation where you have four first team keepers but no standout choice again.