Almunia: Time for a Reevaluation?

No.

Few Arsenal players emerged with much credit from the Nou Camp. They all chased and harried a bit, but a telling statistic after the game was that Barcelona's players ran a whole lot more (not sure of the exact figures). It's hard enough playing a team more talented, but when their collective work rate is superior aswell, you don't really stand a chance. Arsenal barely won a 50-50 challenge all night.

As has been the case in recent weeks, Jack Wilshere was at the heart of most of the good things that Arsenal did in attack. And at the back, Laurent Koscielny again won a few personal duels with Leo Messi. But Arsenal's man of the match, if such an award can be given on a night of failure, was substitute Manuel Almunia. He was in almost constant action, particularly in the second half, and quite a few of his saves were in one on one situations. In this strangest of seasons, it is quite possible that he has gone from first choice, to third choice, to the only choice, with Fabianski's season finished and, possibly, Szczesny's too.

It has been fashionable for a long time to deride the Spaniard. He first came into the Arsenal line up in 2004, soon after the team's 49 game unbeaten run had ended so acrimoniously at Old Trafford. His chance came at the expense of Jens Lehmann, who was somewhat unfairly scapegoated for the team's general loss of form. Almunia soon proved himself much more error-prone than even the eccentric German, and by the end of the next season, Lehmann was undoubted number one and a real cult hero, having helped Arsenal to the Champions League final.

Almunia became the main man early in 07/08, when Lehmann dropped horrendous gaffes in the first two league games against Fulham and Blackburn. Despite enjoying a decent season, the Spaniard never quite convinced people that he was a top stopper, and Football365 soon became fond of stating that Arsenal played without a goalkeeper. He's started every season since as number one, but it looked like this time around, with Fabianski finally finding form, and Szczesny looking like the next Peter Schmeichel, Almunia's stint was finally up. Will the performance last night have changed opinions?

Not mine. Almunia's best moments have generally come in games where Arsenal have found themselves under siege- in other words, games that only come around once in a while. This was the case at home to Barcelona last season, even though in that game, he still practically begged Zlatan Ibrahimovic to lob him for the opening goal. He was also impressive in another Champions Leage game, the away semi-final against United in 09, where Arsenal were outplayed and opened up at will. To be fair, he also had a knack of saving penalties, including one against Spurs that probably turned no points into three in 2008.

But the common criticism of Almunia has been his inability to make saves in the games that Arsenal dominate. The games where the keeper just has to make one or two interventions, to ensure that the attacking players can go on and win the game. And you never got the impression that he inspired much confidence in his defenders. His decision making has always been suspect. I will always have nightmares about an ill-advised charge to meet Ryan Giggs near the corner flag at Highbury, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo with an empty net during that temper-flared thriller in 2005. He has never lost that tendency to act on suspect impulses and it has often cost Arsenal dearly.

After the Birmingham game and Ben Foster's standout performance, some asked whether Manchester United should have stuck with him as Van der Sar's understudy. But Foster and Almunia are alike. Foster's best games come when he's busy, and a United keeper will not usually be busy. A United keeper will need to organise his defence, take crosses and make a few saves in between long stretches of boredom. Birmingham suits Foster better because they are a mid-level team, with lower expectations, and he can keep himself busy saving a steady barrage of shots. He will still make regular mistakes but they will not be noticed like they were when he was costing United points.

A big club needs a cool, calm, reliable goalkeeper and that usually means an experienced one. Almunia has experience, but it is of a questionable quality. Before Arsenal, he was a journeyman keeper in Spain, and in all his years in London he has not gained the trust of many. Wenger will probably continue, when given the choice, with the education of either Fabianski or, hopefully, Szczesny, and allow the Spaniard to leave in the summer. In an ideal world, he would buy a man of experience to help the defence along and avoid such catastrophes as we saw at Wembley, but that may be an expensive business and we know what Wenger thinks of expensive business. He would rather sit on the money and live with the inevitable mistakes. The future will arrive some day.

Everton 1-2 Arsenal...

For almost eighty minutes, it is just about the best performance of the season from Arsenal. Difficult venue. Tough opposition. Arsenal solid at the back (!) and looking fairly sparky in the final third, too. An unlikely scorer gives the Gunners the lead. After Nasri's shot is parried by Howard, Arshavin retrieves and lays it off to Sagna inside the area. Everton stand off, maybe thinking he can't score. Wrong, 1-0.

Second half kicks off with a lovely finish from an otherwise still below-par Fabregas. Denilson looks to have over played things on the edge of the box. Finds Fabregas. Fabregas- Chamakh- dinky pass- Fabregas- goal. Job done?

Nasri and Chamakh should seal it. First the Frenchman threatens another classic solo goal. Howard saves well. He plays in Fabregas, whose driven cross finds Chamakh. Spooned over the bar from point blank. Will it be punished?

Probably would have been but for the erratic Fabianski. Today, as against Wolves, is one of his good days. Arsenal slacken in the final 15 (complacency? fatigue?), and Everton find the reserves for a stirring finale. Should be on the scoresheet before Cahill scores, but Fabianski denies Beckford, Pienaar, Saha. Wenger responds to the goal by replacing Chamakh with not Bendtner, but Eboue. Invites late onslaught, but little trouble materialises.

A GREAT WIN, the weekend that's in it. Chelsea lose. United draw again. City in turmoil. A strange season so far, as unpredictable as any in memory.

City 0-3 Arsenal, Significance Uncertain.

Is a win in a big game automatically a big win?

Regardless of circumstances, the result on Sunday must have lifted a great weight off this Arsenal team's shoulders.

It had been almost two years since they defeated a team that could be described as title rivals, so we can hope that this game will go some way to erasing the inferiority complex that seems to infect Arsenal against Chelsea and Manchester United.

At the same time, there is a tendency to judge matches only on their scorelines and this is something that should be avoided. For instance, when Chelsea beat Arsenal recently, the consensus was that the Gunners were outclassed, despite dominating the game and failing to take some early chances. Chelsea scored from two half-chances, and their second goal came late, but they were depicted as comfortable, superior winners. All on the basis of the scoreline.

Arsenal having won 3-0, at Eastlands, suggests a gulf in class, but that is not so.

A fifth minute red card is going to have a huge effect on any game. Even more vitally, Arsenal scored soon afterwards, leaving City with a mountain to climb. But Arsenal gave up chances throughout the game and so any praise for a newfound maturity may be a little unjustified.

When you break it down, the game told us little about Arsenal that we didn't already know. Their defending is rotten. Djourou was roasted by Tevez in the first minute, leading to a chance for Silva. He was embarrassed again by Micah Richards with the score at 1-0. Despite playing against ten men, there was little sign of the game being killed off until Song buried the second goal. City always looked threatening up to that point.

City enjoyed large doses of luck against Blackpool last week and here it ran out. The red card was justified but they were unlucky to lose Tevez early in the second half. Yaya Toure looked formidable first half but he too had to be teken off (his replacement, Wayne Bridge, teed up Song's goal with a lovely lay-off). They had chances but encountered a keeper who is finally finding some form.

There were of course poitives for Arsenal. If the first half was a little hot-headed and nervy, the players did more to defuse the situation after half time. Fabregas, Song and Denilson had all been booked but curbed the instinct to lunge into any more silly tackles.

Nasri was outstanding, took his goal beautifully. He set up Bendtner's too. And he has been steadily improving since the back end of last season, moving out of Fabregas's shadow.

Chamakh has already proved a wonderful signing; it becomes clear why Wenger was happy to wait for him rather than rush into buying another striker last January. While Van Persie may be a more explosive player, Chamakh arguably has a more rounded game, and the Dutchman may find it difficult to regain his place at centre forward when he returns from his latest injury.

The Moroccan's falling over skills were in evidence again- how many red cards and penalties has he forced already this season??

Fabregas, despite the missed penalty, showed few signs of rust despite having just returned from a fairly lengthy lay off. He provided the pass slide rule pass that sent Chamakh through, having already released a wrongly flagged Arshavin moments before. These facts form a riposte to Mancini's assertion that City would have won 11 v 11. Of course we'll never know, but the signs were that both sides would have made chances, and it may well have gone either way. But that game never materialised, and instead, maybe this Arsenal team got exactly what they needed in a big encounter.

The significance can only be decided by what comes next. Remember West Brom, that's all I'll say.

I'm Going On Strike: Blackburn 2-1 Arsenal

Will we even finish third?

Let's look for some positives... Wenger still sounds, in public remarks at least, as if he doesn't think we need a new goalkeeper. Fabianski provided yet more concrete evidence to the contrary. He is amazingly prolific in his mistake-making. So maybe some good will come out of another defeat, in a perverse way.

With all the first-choice players we're missing, I see the season's end as an audition for the squad players. Almost to a man, they're failing. Abou Diaby is, for me, a nothing player. Flashes of mercurial brilliance are not what's required from a central midfielder, although in a league in which Steven Gerrard has been lionised, you'd be forgiven for thinking so. Theo Walcott, I've said all I have to say. Eduardo looks a spent force thanks to the neanderthal ethic of the English game. Vela is the new Aliadieire. Nasri, though talented, shirks responsibility too often. Yes, we are missing good players, but what is a squad for?

Third place, assuming we still finish there: some will say it's no disgrace. If they've bought into Sky Sports bullshit, they may peddle a line about it being the best league in the world. This year, the league's relative poorness has covered up Arsenal's myriad deficiencies somewhat but nine defeats cannot be ignored. Something is rotten in the state of Arsenal. You can fall for the rhetoric and the ideals if you so please but as far as I'm concerned, the right man for the job is the man who does the right things; Arsene Wenger hasn't for quite some time and thus I suggest that the Summer and the season that follows become his audition.

Indecision is final: the goalkeeping crisis rumbles on

The goalkeeping dilemma has turned into a bit of a farce. Mannone is only 21, that's young for a goalkeeper, so mistakes are inevitable. He should be making those mistakes and learning from them in the reserves or out on loan somewhere.

The fact that he's doing it in the Premiership and the champions league betrays Wenger's loss of faith in Almunia. A lot of people feel he's not good enough to be Arsenal's number one, but it's frustrating that Wenger seems only to have developed that attitude, mid-season and outside of a transfer window, rather than seeing it and addressing it in the summer. Again, a lack of decisiveness, of action, looks to be costing us dearly.

Maybe he sees the returning Fabianski as the answer. Anyone who saw his horrendous error gift chelsea a place in the FA cup final last season will be sceptical.

So all in all more disappointing lack of foresight from Wenger. That was seen in microcosm in the game against West Ham aswell when he didn't replace the awful Eboue with an efficient right-winger to help us kill the game. Instead he fell back on negativity and only reacted when the damage was done at 2-2.

For a man renowned for keeping faith with players- Diaby springs to mind, as do Eboue, Song and a few more- he's never been shy of making a scapegoat of a keeper. Ironically enough, this was how Almunia first got his chance in 04/05, when Lehmann was harshly dropped after the "Untouchables" rediscovered vulnerability. Now Almunia falls victim to this policy. As then, I think it's a bad move by Wenger. I don't rate Almunia but nor do I think we're any better off with either of our current alternatives. Now, if Almunia comes back in and this figurative kick up the hole has forced him into improvement, I'll laud Wenger, but I'm not holding my breath. More likely a mentally fragile and fairly limited goalkeeper has had whatever confidence he held before destroyed. To me, a fit Almunia should have been restored, and proper competition, or indeed an immediate replacement, sought in January.