FABIANSKI'S BIRTHDAY BLUES
Arsenal keeper Lukasz has shocker on his 24th
IT MAY be possible to win trophies with a team full of kids but not one with a dodgy keeper.
Not so long ago Petr Cech was No 1 in the world. Now it is debatable whether he is even the best at Stamford Bridge. But he was still in a different league to Arsenal's Lukasz Fabianski who had an absolute shocker on his 24th birthday.
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But the reasons for Arsenal's defeat ran deeper than their rookie keeper's nightmare. Boss Arsene Wenger's almost evangelical faith in youth looked flawed yesterday when push came to shove.
Manchester United's golden generation of academy graduates famously won the title in the mi-90s.
Arsenal's youngsters are good - especially skipper Cesc Fabregas - but the group is not in the same class as Fergie's Fledglings.
They may yet prove otherwise when they take on United in the Champions League semi-final.
But on this evidence their prospects of reaching Rome look increasingly unlikely - especially if Fabianksi remains between the sticks.
The Pole has been thrust into the limelight at the business end of the season as first-choice Manuel Almunia is struggling to recover from a foot injury. But Fabianski just did not look ready.
He was clearly at fault for Florent Malouda's equaliser and should have made a much better fist of stopping Didier Drogba grabbing Chelsea's 84th-minute winner.
Arsenal have not won a trophy for four years and if they fail again, this summer could be a watershed for the club.
Surely Wenger has to bite the bullet and recruit a few top class, experienced players in key positions - in particular a new keeper and a midfield enforcer. Mikael Silvestre, for instance, was badly exposed yesterday - but that is what you get when buy United's cast-offs.
Failure to strengthen could see the Gunners as a 'nearly' team again and that would then run the risk of persuading stars such as Fabregas and Robin van Persie that they should pursue the chase for honours elsewhere.
Arsenal's recent run of 19 unbeaten games included too many draws and has disguised the soft underbelly of this side.
There are days when they play exhilarating football. But too often they can be over-fussy or lack the conviction and cutting edge that was their trademark when the Invincibles set such a standard with their last Premier League triumph in 2004. This was most obvious at Wembley yesterday.
In contrast to Arsenal, the Chelsea squad is ageing, possibly over their peak, but in a game of this magnitude they knew what to do and when to do it.
Too many of Arsenal's youngsters looked overwhelmed by the occasion, allowing Chelsea to claw their way back instead of kicking on to make the game safe. How Fabregas could have done with an older general to help him rally his team or someone to insist Theo Walcott display more composure with his final ball.
Walcott had the confidence boost of scoring with an 18th-minute volley. But, given the lack of ferocity, Cech should have saved and the keeper of a few years ago certainly would have done.
Yet, even by then, Fabianski had given a warning he might cost the Gunners. After just four minutes he was caught in no-man's land as he raced out of his area.
And he was only bailed out when Kieran Gibbs chased back to hack off the line after Drogba looped his header over the stranded keeper.
Hairy
A couple of hairy moments followed until the 33rd minute when Fabianksi woefully allowed Malouda's shot from the edge of the area to beat him far too easily at the near post.
He remained an accident waiting to happen and the car crash came with six minutes to go.
Fabianski did not know whether to stick or twist as Drogba roared past Silvestre. He could have stood tall on the edge of his area or raced out of his box to tackle at the striker's feet.
In the end he did neither and Drogba effortlessly nicked the ball past him and rolled it into an empty net.
Wenger admitted: "He's a great keeper - but this was not his greatest moment."
Not sure about the first bit. No kidding about the second.
Fabianski's hero is former Poland keeper Jan Tomaszewski, the man famously labelled a clown by Brian Clough at Wembley in 1973. But Tomaszewski had a blinder at Wembley that night, in his own unconventional way, as England failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Yesterday the Arsenal keeper should have been wearing a red nose as Chelsea had the last laugh.
But the Blues, too, will be nervously watching their goalkeeper as they prepare for an FA Cup final and a Champions League semi-final with Barcelona.
Cech appears to be having a major confidence crisis, perhaps suffering psychologically from the aftershock of that fractured skull two years ago.
To be fair, he did recover from his early error and with time running out he made a couple of brave punches from late, desperate crosses. But by then Arsenal's young side looked leggy and lacking in belief.
Strangely, Wenger left it late to inject the fresh ideas of the experienced Andrey Arshavin and even more bewilderingly took off Manu Adebayor.
The big striker was not at his best but without him Arsenal lost their presence up front.
Within a minute Drogba imposed his own presence by scoring the winner when he looked like a man among boys as he stormed through to expose Fabianski.
Wenger's young guns are now in danger of ending their season firing blanks.
This article has 20 comments
its nt is fault no first team action what can you do
By sean. Posted April 20 2009 at 12:35 PM.
The biggest problem is Wenger is too STUBBORN.He will not admit he is wrong.The youth plan has failed.But he will not change,He has too much power at Arsenal.No manager should ever be in the position where the board is afraid to sack.We are a 4th place team no better no worse
By Don the Gooner. Posted April 19 2009 at 2:33 PM.
JOSE MOURINHINO DID WENGERS JOB IN TWO YEARS.
By mr myles. Posted April 19 2009 at 12:56 PM.
Wenger just bottled it again he gets scared and does dumb things he complains about Bolton and all the physical teams playing 4-5-1 then we play Chelsea with the same formation he didn't play the right squad has no faith in his team because some player are better and only he doesn't see it he's mad from time he done that granddad dance we fans should have know he would put all his eggs in one basket this result was outrageous chelsea are dead and play dead football lampard man of the match is a joke all he done was long ball after long ball WENGER LOST US THE MATCH AS FAR AS SELECTING A TEAM HIS JOB IS SIMPLE NO DENILSON NO FABIANSKI I KNEW WE SHOULD HAVE GOT GIVEN COS HES BETTER THAN OUR FIRST KEEPER.
By mr myles. Posted April 19 2009 at 12:54 PM.
yeah right lets sack arsene thats just mental talk why would you want that who would we get to replace him i suppose hughes will be looking for a new job soon we could employ him
By amski. Posted April 19 2009 at 12:47 PM.
arsene needs to go? are some of you so called arsenal supporters mad.this man has as a fact brought arsenal out of the dark ages,every team wants to be like arsenal,he is a chairman,shareholders and supporters dream manager.this man is to ahead for the other managers,its not just spend,spend,spend.look what he has done for arsenal football club,and compare him to another manager,none i repeat none have done what he has and will do..the man is a genius to take below average players and make them believe they are good.come on support the man and team when we win,and believe when we lose we will bounce back,be positive.
By ashburtonpalace. Posted April 19 2009 at 12:37 PM.
Get rid of silvest. you cant compete with the man u when you buy their rejects.Arsene might bo good with young platers but, tactically arsene is not. And age has nothing to do with abilities or skills. Is either you have it or u dont. Look at messi, rooney, and cesc,they have they produce all the time,so whats bendtner still doing at arsenal, wenger said he is only 20, how many goals did he score durning adebayor's injury,yet he had so many chances, and he is our second striker.its all wenger's fault. He is Mr Arsenal. Sort it out.
By barbs miller. Posted April 19 2009 at 12:32 PM.
fabianski makes a dodgy call every time he is on the pitch simples
By amski. Posted April 19 2009 at 11:48 AM.
fabianskyyy is pureely an unexperienced keeper and to put him in such a big game is too much for him coz even in hes first game wen almunia got injured he sed hes not ready for 1st team in a way we had to play him but hope he learnz from itt....talkin bout tacticall wenger chose denilson or song was one of the point becausee the boy really wasnt up to ittt and could handle the physicall sidee and putting rvp on the left and adebayorr on hes own he nevr performz....stilll i believe v shud keep our headz high cz v got many big gamez cumin uppp....
By gunner4lyf. Posted April 19 2009 at 11:41 AM.
to say wenger should go is ridiculous and yr obviously not a reall arsenal supporter do u not remember where we were b4 he came along, yes he makes mistakes dont we all, yes he made a huge mistake yest by not putting either arshavin, nasri and even song in the starting line up, he should have played 4-4-2 i just dont see 4-5-1 working against an open team like chelsea who have no width which we should have tried to expose by putting theo and either arshavin or nasri on the other wing, i reckon arshavin would have been peeved at not playing considering he cant play CL games he really wanted the fa cup i was shocked when i heard he was not starting i bet he was even more shocked, i also think that we need to just get rid of silvestre he is useless for someone with so much experience he makes far too many mistakes he was exposed against villareal and showed it again yest id put song at centre back and just get rid of silvstre he has absolutely no passion, but im keeping the faith in wenger as he is still a genius in my eyes dont forget how many crucial players we have missed this season thru injury wenger cant be blamed for having to put that defence out there yest.
By mr_rossi. Posted April 19 2009 at 10:47 AM.
Blame WEnger for the tactical blunder of leaving a fresh Arshavin and Nasri who had a decent mid week game on the bench. The left wing was virtually non-existent as RVP seemed out of depth, Walcott is a one trick horse and it didn't take Chelsea long to figure him out on the right wing.He couldn't have done much about the defence as injuries forced the selection but we could have done without the school boy errors.Song had a good game midweek protecting the back 4 and i think the players on field were all attack minded and that didn't help our cause. Wenger needs to splash out on key positions this summer, from the look of things we need to play a blinder if we are to get Manure in the CL for our only hope of silverware...another sad day at the office.
By tarquin1012. Posted April 19 2009 at 10:26 AM.
the truth is fabianski is 2 young and not ready for the first team the goal that put us out was down to silvest hes just not good enough he dont have the commitment the pace or he belif of all the others arsenal players and adebeyor needs shooting he was rubbish again
By george good. Posted April 19 2009 at 10:05 AM.
y does every 1 get on the band wagon and start blaming arsene hes 1 of the best managers around look where we were b4 he came 2 the club. playing boring football.
now we play great football but i do agree that we need at least 3 experienced players in key areas.
then man u chelsea and liverpool would have no chance of winning any thing so come on u gooners lets start winning an getting trophies an arsene please spend some money.
By dave. Posted April 19 2009 at 9:42 AM.
Why are football supporters so fickle? Wenger has done a great job.
Yesterday Chelsea were the better team but it was two goalkeeping mistakes that cost you the match.
I agree Arshavin and Nasri should both have started and that something needs to be done about Adebayor and Bendtner, they miss far too many chances for strikers.
I also agree he needs to go and spend some money. The top three love spending and therefore, in comparison, he has achieved a lot for so little.
By jon ward. Posted April 19 2009 at 9:20 AM.
The back four plus the keeper missing were never going to win this match, the sad thing was they took the lead then let in a soft goal. the team are not good enough, we have been used to viera, petit, overmars, lundberg, henry, bergkamp,pieres letting these players go has always been the problem, wenger is not been given any money it's been all down hill since David Dein left!
By vin sable. Posted April 19 2009 at 9:01 AM.
Arsenal r gona be riped apart on tuesday
By alasatra. Posted April 19 2009 at 8:44 AM.
Fabianski too hyper. Comes off his line too quickly.
Van persie has not played well. His accuracey in shooting is not good. He had a chance well positioned and the ball was hit well wide. Fabregas passing was terrible for accuracey. The changes made were too late. Arshavin was fresh and could have played most of the match. I think we have to sell and buy. I would buy a keeper a defender and a striker. Taller so they can win the high balls. When are the refs going to tighten up on body checking and shirt pulling. Terrible . Remember these boys are professional very well paid and some are not producing the goods. Very disappointed at the performance. If we do not produce we will win nothing.
By John. Posted April 19 2009 at 2:29 AM.
1. Wenger is parrt of the problem
2. Most of the players in the team, are average at best (Denilson, Diaby, Eboue, Adebayor, Bendtner etc)...hence that they are unable to deliver against stiff competition should be no suprise.
3. Its the height of tactical stupidity for Wenger to have left Arshavin and Nasri on the bench till less around 10 minutes to the end of the game.
Arshavin is better than Fabregas yet, Wenger decides to leave him on the bench even though Arshavin is not eligible for CL...hence would have been a good bet for FA Cup.
4. Arsenal really need to start looking for another Manager...cus it seems Wenger is bound to destroy Arsenal's history as a club, if this continues.
5. Its Wenger's decision that there is no quality cus he's the one who signed them...hence all failure and success starts and stops with him.
By No2Atheism. Posted April 19 2009 at 2:41 AM.
Okay so the guy had a had a bad day highlighted by a 2 costly goals....but he is not soley responsible for the result. The defence was somewhat lacking which should have been protecting him more. It can't all be put down to Fabianski. Top 4 in UK and top 4 in Europe, the boys have done well. After the first goal we took our foot off the gas and should have played more of an attacking game.
By FabisFab. Posted April 19 2009 at 2:06 AM.
CYGAN, SILVESTER AND WENGER 3 FRENCH MUSKATEERS WE CAN DO WITHOUT AT THE EMIRATES, TOO THINK WE LET UPSON GO AND TURNED DOWN THE CHANCE OF SINGING GIVEN FOR A STEAL AT 6 MILLION? WE NEED PSYSIACTRIC TREATMENT IF WE CANNOT SEE WHERE OUR PROBLEMS LIE
By tom king. Posted April 18 2009 at 11:30 PM.