Time Arsene Wenger gave starlet his chance at the Emirates

Arsenal‘s home defeat to West Brom on Saturday only served to highlight the extent of Arsenal’s goalkeeping problems. First-choice goalkeeper Manuel Almunia has come in for some strong criticism following a number of high-profile mistakes and on Saturday it was no different.

Manuel Almunia started the game and was at fault for two of West Brom’s goals. He let Gonzalo Jara’s tame shot past him and was caught in no-man’s land for the Baggies’ third.

With all of Arsenal’s goalkeeping woes, it was a surprise that Arsene Wenger didn’t choose to add a goalkeeper to his squad in this summer’s transfer window. This comes as even more of a surprise when it became clear that Arsenal had posted record pre-tax profits of £56 million for last year but were unwilling to spend money on a new goalkeeper. They failed to match Fulham’s valuation for Mark Schwarzer and declined to make a move for Shay Given who has lost his spot in the Manchester City side to Joe Hart.

The decision to not bring in a new goalkeeper will mean Wenger has to look to his current squad to cure his goalkeeping woes and in Wojciech Szczesny, he has a hugely talented young goalkeeper that could solve all of his problems.

Consistency has been a key problem for Almunia and Fabianski with the pair seemingly unable to string together a sequence of good performances for the Gunners. However, while on loan at Brentford, Szczesny was a model of consistency as he earned rave reviews for his performances in the Griffin Park goal.

The young Pole was a revelation at Brentford, playing 28 times for the Bees and making a host of wonderful saves. Here’s a video of Szczesny in action:

As you can see from the video, Szczesny has lightning-quick reflexes and is an outstanding shot-stopper. His instincts are first-class and he has huge confidence in his own ability.

Szczesny has returned to Arsenal eager to prove himself worthy of starting for the Gunners but has so far cut a frustrated figure at the Emirates. Indeed, Szczesny has expressed his disappointment at being left out of the Carling Cup tie against Tottenham last week and is apparently losing patience with his manager due to a lack of first-team opportunities.

Speaking to Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Szczesny said that Wenger “seems to forget” him and that the Frenchman is “avoiding me at every occasion”.

And Wenger may have good reason to.

The last young goalkeeper that Wenger attempted to blood was Richard Wright and he proved to be an unmitigated disaster.

Wenger has had a good track record of buying outfield players but his goalkeeping purchases leave much to be desired. During his 14 years at Arsenal, the only real goalkeeper that he has signed which has done well for the Gunners is Jens Lehmann.

Other than that, Wenger has brought in some less than impressive keepers including Rami Shaaban, Guillaume Warmuz and Mart Poom.

With his track-record of unspectacular goalkeepers, it is no wonder that Wenger is apprehensive when it comes to starting Szczesny.

While Szczesny’s confidence could be construed as arrogance, it is a quality you would like to see in a young goalkeeper. He is hungry and eager to prove himself at the highest level and with Arsenal’s current goalkeeping predicament, he should be given a chance.

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