When Lukasz Fabianski took to the sticks last night in Arsenal’s Champions League clash with Partizan Belgrade, many Arsenal fans were filled with a justifiable trepidation. The 25-year-old Polish international has earned an unwelcome reputation for being ‘unreliable’ or ‘mistake-prone’. You may recall from the first knockout round of last season’s Champions League, that two errors from Fabianski gifted the game to an otherwise lackadaisical Porto side. The first was to parry a left-sided cross into his own net and the second was to pass the ball to the feet of an oncoming Porto player, giving him full license to sweep home Porto’s second. Unfortunately for Lukasz things have scarcely improved this season. When called into action against Spurs in the Carling Cup, Lukasz disappointed once more – although he got hands to Robbie Keane’s shot, he had the stopping-force of a cat-flap and his error lead to Spurs drawing level with Arsenal and forcing extra-time.
The worry for many Arsenal fans is that although Fabianski is very much their second goalkeeper, their primary option is hardly any better. Manuel Almunia shares Fabianski’s penchant for costly errors – just witness last Saturday’s game against West Brom, which was, penalty-save allowing, a showcase for a number of the worst-sides of Almunia. The game ended 3-2 to West Brom with errors from Almunia gifting the Baggies their second and third goals. This display was perhaps the more disappointing considering it was at odds with Almunia’s otherwise solid start to the season. Its effect was to unearth the wealth of bad-feeling the Arsenal faithful still hold against Almunia for a number of mistakes made late last season and beyond.
This was the situation heading into the game with Partizan Belgrade. Faith in both goalkeepers was shot. It was reported that Almunia had picked up an elbow injury from the West Brom game and would be unavailable for selection (although one wonders upon the truth of such claims). Despite the prevalence of bad-feeling towards Fabianski, he was to take to the field against Belgrade and Wenger once more stated his firmly held belief in him: “Fabianski made the mistakes but he can show he has learned from that,” said Wenger. “The only way to show you have confidence in a player is to put him on the pitch. I have no concerns, only you [the media] do.” It might be suggested that Wenger’s confidence is somewhat forced rather than earned. There’s little he can do about the situation until the transfer window re-opens in January, so until then he has to maintain confidence in his keepers and hope that his belief in them will transfer into good performances.
Strangely enough, Wenger’s tactic has begun to show signs of working. Belgrade represented Fabianski’s best performance in an Arsenal shirt. Sure, he missed a penalty early on after Denilson carelessly handled the ball in the area, but he did not allow this to dent his confidence. With the score at 1-3 (to the Gunners) Gibb’s tired challenge gifted a stonewall penalty to Belgrade. Arsenal fans have seen their team implode a number of times over the last couple of seasons and may have worried that this was the beginning of something all too familiar. The nerves were soon quelled when Fabianski turned aside Cleo’s fizzing spot-kick. It obviously meant a lot to the Polish international, who pumped his fist and let out an emotional roar. More impressive still was the Poles acrobatic stop to prevent Ivica Iliev giving Arsenal something to think about in the dying minutes of the game.
Arsene was naturally delighted for Lukasz and suggested in his post-game interviews that “the Fabianski we saw tonight was the keeper we see in training and he had a faultless game. I knew a performance like that was in him, we just had to get it out of him”. He also added that he was “still confident he will turn out to be a great goalkeeper”. Now whilst it’s important that Arsenal fans maintain their expectations – one good game does not a goalkeeping problem solve – Fabianski’s performance in Belgrade does offer a shred of hope for the future.
Although there’s no clear evidence as of now that Fabianski can or will be a ‘great goalkeeper’, we have finally seen that there is substance behind Wenger’s belief in Fabianski. The game will have done the Polish international no end of good – this is the zenith of his Arsenal career thus far and he is doubtless full of confidence. If he plays at the weekend (as is expected) against Chelsea one can’t help but feel that he’ll need all the confidence he can get. With Vermaelen set to miss the game and Fabregas unlikely to make it, Chelsea are the unequivocal favourites to grab all three points. Arsenal fans can at least take comfort in the knowledge that Fabianski is capable of a good performance and hope that whilst on this confidence-high, he may just offer another one in the upcoming London derby.
Written By Henry Cloke