Arsenal are top of the league.
And top of their Champions League Group.
And they are unbeaten in their last 25 games in all competitions.
So it’s an excellent sequence and the team is playing well. They’ve drawn the last two games at Liverpool and Manchester United because they played 4-5-1 in both games.Their opponents scored first in both those games and while Arsenal were better than Liverpool, Manchester United were better than them. To me, Arsenal never looked like winning on Saturday and were never ahead.
At no point – outside the stadium, during the warm-up, during the game – did I believe that Arsenal would beat Manchester United
But if Manuel Almunia had stayed on his line in 82 minutes, who knows ?
Remember this : the Arsenal players are all international players. They all have caps and they’re all in their national squads. But Almunia isn’t and never has been. That tells you something. That tells you that Almunia is not one of Spain’s top four goalkeepers. Arsenal think they are one of Europe’s top eight clubs, and since the most important player in any football team is the goalkeeper, Arsenal should have an international keeper. A team that aspires to win the Champions League has to employ an international goalkeeper.
A few weeks ago I wrote that Jens Lehmann will not play for Arsenal again. That was my opinion. That was my prediction. I got plenty of abuse for saying that but now I’m gonna say it again. I have to tell you what I think because if I don’t I’m a phoney, a fake, a coward, a waste of time.
I’m convinced that the other players do not want Lehmann in their team and that’s why the German, who is the best keeper at the club, is not in the side and will not be in the side.
But I could be wrong about Lehmann playing for Arsenal again. I’ve often been wrong about football.We shall have to wait and see.
In the meantime, Arsenal have some matches coming up and then they play Chelsea at the Emirates on December 16.
So the $64,000 question is : can Arsenal beat Chelsea with Almunia in goal?
That is the question that Arsene Wenger has to ask himself. He wants to keep the run going and he probably thinks, as we all do, that Arsenal can beat Slavia, Reading and Wigan with Almunia in goal. It’s not really an issue when you play inferior sides.
But the issue is an elephant in the room. You can ignore an elephant but only for so long. Sooner or later somebody has to point it out. Somebody has to make a big decision.
Somebody has to say : What are we gonna do about that elephant ? We’ve been pretending it’s not there, but now we have to do something.
Is Fabianski ready ?