For a man so dedicated to cultivating the attacking arts, Arsène Wenger is suddenly being forced to spend a perplexing amount of time on the back foot.
As he swapped the dark clouds and heavy rain engulfing Luton airport for Serbia's late September sunshine today, questions about vulnerabilities within his goalkeeping department and the leadership qualities of a side shorn of Cesc Fábregas must certainly have echoed in the Arsenal manager's ears.
Wenger's team arrived for tomorrow night's Champions League game at Partizan Belgrade having lost only once this season – defeated by West Bromwich Albion on Saturday – but with concern mounting about the calibre of their goalkeepers.
Reiterating his principles with characteristic defiance Wenger once again defended Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski while also shrugging off suggestions that he erred in not signing Mark Schwarzer or Shay Given during the summer. Instead the Frenchman continues to rely on Almunia and his understudy, Fabianski, who will be Arsenal's last line of defence tomorrow evening as the former is out with an elbow injury.
Injuries are rarely welcome in football but Wenger probably has reason to be relieved about this particular malady. Not for the first time, Almunia was heavily criticised for his part in the 3-2 West Bromwich defeat, during which he was blamed for Albion's second goal. His manager looked suitably relieved to be able to pull him out of the firing line and offer a plausible excuse.
"Almunia is injured, he did his right elbow in making [conceding] the penalty [which the Spaniard saved]," he said. "We checked him at half‑time, he had some pain but said he could go on." In the second half Arsenal's keeper allowed a shot from Gonzalo Jara to squirm past him.
There will inevitably be suspicions that this is a "diplomatic" injury designed to protect a shell-shocked player but, whatever the reality, Wenger cleverly gave Almunia's critics reason to doubt their damning analysis before claiming he would have started here if fit. "No, I wouldn't have dropped him. The keeper is always the easy target, the easy scapegoat. But we win and lose together, even if people think he made a mistake on the second goal. Manuel is very low. He's disappointed. But the whole squad's very low. We had a good opportunity and did not catch it."
If Wenger harbours regrets about not signing Schwarzer or Given during the transfer window he was keeping them to himself. Similar discretion was applied to any potential recruitment of a new keeper in January. "I don't think that's the right debate now," he said. "We have the squad we have. Players who did not come in are not the problem."
Fabianski is possibly even more error-prone than Almunia but his manager remains unworried. "I have no concerns," said Wenger who will put Wojciech Szczesny on the bench. "Only the media do. Fabianski's made mistakes in the past but has shown he can learn from them."
Having exhausted goalkeeping, the conversation turned to the vacuum left by Fábregas's absence. "It's always tempting when you lose to say there's no leader but I believe you share leadership and we have plenty of players of character," said Wenger, who declined to name his captain for tomorrow night but readily reasserted core principles. "I'll tell my players to continue to play the way we want to play and to believe in themselves."
Partizan's class of 2010 may be a shadow of their 1966 European Cup finalist forbears but the Serbian champions – much to Red Star's chagrin – cannot be underestimated. "They're technically very good and well organised," acknowledged Wenger who, taking Serbian police advice, has requested enhanced security for his squad. "They'll use every possible break to hit us on the counter-attack. We'll have a lot of the ball but it'll be frenetic."
Coached by the 36-year-old Aleksandar Stanojevic, the unbeaten, fiercely proud, Serbian league leaders – who have appealed for their sometimes violent fans to "behave" tomorrow night – boast a former Wigan reserve goalkeeper in Vladimir Stojkovic, along with a potent Brazil‑born forward named Cleo.
The recipient of death threats after crossing the great Belgrade divide from Red Star last year, Cleo scored eight times in six Champions League qualifiers and is now widely regarded as "the best signing" in his new club's history. Charged with frustrating him tomorrow night, Fabianksi may not care to be reminded that Partizan are frequently dubbed either "The Steam-Roller" or "The Grave-Diggers".
Source: Louise Taylor, The Guardian on 27 Sep 10
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