Champions League: Barcelona - Arsenal 3-1, 8 March 2011

One player's bad luck is another's good luck. During the Championship League match Barcelona - Arsenal Wojciech Szczęsny was ruled out by an injury. Manuel Almunia took his place in Arsenal's goal and used his chance well. He made 8 saves. Quite an achivement when one has to face players like Messi and Villa.

Quite surprising how it all happened. Manuel Almunia was ruled out by the injury of an elbow at the very beginning of this season. Łukasz Fabiański took his place and stayed as No. 1 till the fatal injury of an shoulder caused that he is not going to play in this season any more. Wojciech Szczęsny was next in the line and was doing well, but now he is going to face at least six weeks break.

It was said that Almunia might leave Arsenal in the winter transfer window. It was not first time when he seemed to be just one step away from being send away. But he did stay. And if he is going to keep up the good shape I'm not sure if Szczęsny is going to regain the place in the goal easily. So far Almunia had two good performances - in the Championship League against Barcelona and in FA Cup against Manchester United. Both were lost by Arsenal, quite true, but the goalkeeper saved all what he could.

Łukasz Fabiański ruled out for the rest of the season, Wojciech Szczęsny - a new No. 1

Łukasz Fabiański is going to miss the last four month of the season due to an injury of the shoulder. He had already undergo a surgery. Now he is slowly coming back to health and it's going to take time before he can start rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Wojciech Szczęsny, replaced his compration both as No. 1 in Arsenal and in the national team.

Liked his performance in Poland's game against Norway. Polish team needs a self-confident goalkeeper, on whom one can rely on. Luckily, the goalkeeper position is the one, where the coach has a wide choice. Even with Fabiański and Boruc out, there is plenty others, who can replace them. Szczęsny is the first choice now.

He is also expected to play in the Championship League against Barcelona. Who would predict such a turn in a career of the young goalkeeper? It can be his big chance.

Premier League: Arsenal vs Everton 2-1, 1 February 2010, video highlights

szólj hozzá: AR2-1EV[matchhighlight.com]HL

Great game to watch. Everton opened the game when Louis Saha scored in 24'. They lead till 70'. Five minutes were enough for Arsenal to catch up with the result (Arshavin) and add to it the second goal (Koscielny).

Wojciech Szczęsny who is now Arsenal's no. 1 didn't had too much to work. Hard to blame him that he allowed a goal from an offside...

Liked the performance of Tim Howard, escpecially his excellent save of Van Persie's shot from free-kick, who tried to send the ball into top right angle. Howard somehow managed to tip it over.

"For me it is clear that Fabiański is No1", states Arsene Wenger

Over last two weeks Łukasz Fabiański has been out of the game due to an injury. However, accoriding to the coach, it didn't change anything. He still considers him to be the first-choice goalkeeper, while Wojciech Szczęsny is the second-choice. Vito Mannone went on the loan to Hull City. Manuel Almunia is still injuried and might leave the club in the transfer window.

Arsène Wenger has reassured his goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański that the shoulder injury that has kept him out of action for the past two weeks has not affected his position as Arsenal's first-choice goalkeeper. The Pole is not yet fit enough to feature against West Ham tomorrow but will be buoyed by his manager's suggestion that he will be thrust straight back into the team when he completes his recovery over the coming days, despite the solid displays in Arsenal's past two matches by his deputy and compatriot, Wojciech Szczęsny.

Fabiański began this season as Arsenal's second choice but has become a regular since replacing the erratic Manuel Almunia in September. "We live in a world of competition but for me it is clear that Fabiański is No1," Wenger said."

Read the full article at guardian.co.uk.

Arsenal vs West Ham United, 30 Oct 2010 - Łukasz Fabiański photos

Premier League: Machester City vs Arsenal 0-3 24 Oct 2010, photos and video highlights

Watched today Manchester City vs Arsenal game. It was an excellent performance of Łukasz Fabiański. He kept clean sheet and made important saves. The first one was at the very beginning of the game, when David Silva tried his luck. However, Fabiański was prepared and showed a good reflex.



One of Machester City's players was send with a red card after a few minutes of the game, so Arsenal had a man advantage and made a good use of that, quickly scoring the opening goal.

The situation of Manchester City became even worse, when Arsenal was awareded a penalty. But Joe Hart, Manchester City's goalie made a good guess and performed an excellent save! Seems that a few more Premier League matches watched and I'm going to have another favorite goalie ;)

Both goalkeepers made 4 saves each.

Nice to read positive reviews of Fabiański's performance, both on English and Polish sports pages. He played six games in the row in the starting 11 and did fine, but I think that when Manuel Almunia will recover, he will be back in the goal.









A few photos with Joe Hart









Video highlights of the 1st half (includes goalkeepers' saves and Joe Hart's penalty saves)



Video highlights of the 2nd half (includes goalkeepers' saves)

Premier League: Chelsea vs Arsenal 2:0, 3 Oct 2010

Łukasz Fabiański played the whole 90 minutes of Chelsea - Arsenal game and it was a really good performance of him. He made 5 saves in total, and allowed goals were not his fault.

However, I think he is going to be second-choice when Almunia comes back after the injury and therefore the Carling Cup matches will be the only ones he can be sure of the place in the starting 11.

Champions League: Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal 1:3, Fabiański photos

Few photos with Łukasz Fabiański from the game and from the trainings.



A training session, Arsenal's training facilities, London Colney, England, Monday, 27 Sept 2010, a day before the match with Partizan in Belgrade on Tuesday.







Arsenal team



Celebrating after saving a penalty.

Champions League: Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal 1:3, 28 Sep 2010 video highlights

Watch video highlights of the game, including penalty saves made by both goalkeepers.

Stojković made 10 saves, Fabiański 4, mostly in the last minutes of the game. Pity that we can only see few of them in the video.

'We saw the Fabianski we see in training', said Arsene Wenger

Quote from a post-game interview with Arsenal's coach Arsene Wenger, after
Chempions League Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal match.

"Fabianski had a good game, we have seen the player tonight who we see in training. He had a faultless game. I know it is in him. He got it out in the game tonight and hopefully that will give him the needed belief and confidence. I am confident he will come out as a great keeper, I have always said that. We have to keep confidence in him and he needs to gain experience from games like this. At the moment Almunia is injured, we will have to see how his injury goes but at the moment it is too early to say."


Source: Arsenal.com page.

Champions League: Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal 1:3, 28 Sep 2010

They were saying Fabiański is finished in Arsenal. They were saying nobody trust him any more. The press was especially harsh on him lately. Well, the coach said that he trust him, but Fabiański wouldn't be in the goal if not the elbow injury of Manuel Almunia.

Today Fabiański had a faultless performance, saved a penalty and made important saves in the last minutes of the game.



Wish I had seen this! Looking forward to see the highlights of the match.

Now I hope that it's is not going to be a sole good performance of him, but it's going to continue in the next matches!

Carling Cup: Tottenham vs Arsenal 1-4, 21 Sep 2010, photos of both goalkeepers and video highlights

Watched in Tuesday Carling Cup game, Tottengam against Arsenal. Łukasz Fabiański was in the goal. Arsenal won the game 1-4. After a tie in the regular time it came to overtime.





Fabiański didn't had too much work to do. Had to make saves only twice. However, he had to face some criticism again. Arsenal was leading the game 1-0 when shortly after the second half had begin, Tottenham manage to tie the game. However, that goal was scored from the offside... In my opinion he did not commit a mistake, left in situation one on one, he could only wait to the very last moment before throwing himself in right direction. He was inches from reaching the ball - the shot was not too strong, so perhaps it was possible to save it, but calling this a howler is really a big exaggeration. But well, that's what tabloits do. They can make any allowed goal looks like the worst howler.



They hardly ever write about goalkeeper's saves... Like this one. Here Fabiański was exactly where he should be.



Croatian goalkeeper, Stipe Pletikosa, had much more work to do than Fabiański. Thanks to his performance Arsenal didn't manage to score more than one goal during the 90 minutes of the game. However, in the injury time, he could do little when Arsenal was given two penalties.







Watch the highlights at Arsenal's page: link.

0:35 Would you call it a howler?

1:52 Save made in the goal box.

Arsenal keeper crisis

Link to the article send by Monica08.

"Manuel Almunia has been left devastated after being frozen out at Arsenal.

Spanish keeper Almunia has yet to start in either of Arsenal's pre-season friendlies as Arsene Wenger looks to sign Mark Schwarzer to be his new number one.

And if Wenger cannot land the Fulham keeper, error-prone Lukasz Fabianski is favourite to start the season in Arsenal's first game of the season at Liverpool on August 15.

It leaves Wenger with the same keeper headache that he finished last season as Almunia has fallen out of favour but the club still does not have a first choice."

(...)

"Polish keeper Fabianski has started both Arsenal's pre-season friendlies and the feeling around the camp is that he is likely to get the nod for the new season."

(...)

"Wenger has high hopes for 20-year-old Wojciech Szczesny who the club believe can be the next big thing."

Read more full article: link

Legia - Arsenal post-game interview with Łukasz Fabiański, video and translation

How do you like idea of learning foreign language by watching video interviews with players and reading translations? I catched some Spanish and Portuguese that way, thanks to Monica08's translations. Can recognize some words now.

Here's post-game interview with Łukasz Fabiański, Arsenal's goalkeeper, given after Legia - Arsenal game which was at last Saturday, provided with translation. An occasion to catch some Polish, perhaps?

Wenger do Fabiańskiego: bye, bye!

The question is inaudible. Most likely it's about what Fabiański thinks about Legia performance in the match.

W ofensywie super, w defensywie... Powiem tak, przez ten pierwszy okres, pierwszą połowę, myślę, że narzucili wysokie tempo. - Great in the attack, but in the defence... I say, in this first part, in the first half, I think they put us under a lot of presssure.

Says "give us some space" and "bye, bye" to Arsene Wenger, Arsenal's coach, who passes by. Fabiański splited up with the team. He didn't came back with rest to London, as he is called-up for the friendly Poland - Cameroon.

Narzucili wysokie tempo w pierwszej połowie, chociaż sądzę, że my też również jako zespół nie za dobrze rozpoczęliśmy to spotkanie, tę pierwszą połowę. - They made the game very fast in the first half, but I think that we, as the team, we didn't start this match too well, this first half.

Natomiast druga połowa, Legia już mimo wszystko chyba trochę opadła z sił pod względem fizycznym i my to jakoś wykorzystaliśmy. - On the contrary the second half, when Legia started losing strenghts, the shape, we made use of it.

Mecz stał się bardzo otwarty. - The match (game) became very open.

Padło jedenaście bramek. - Eleven goals were scored.

Another question almost inaudible. Seems that the journalist asks if he is happy of his performance.

Nie, no wiadomo, że druga bramka... Co do pierwszej, co do trzeciej... Ktoś mi podstawił nogę, nie wiem czy to był mój zawodnik, czy... - Well, about that second goal... That first one, and the third one... Someone tripped me up, I don't know if it was my own player, or... [I think it was one of Arsenal players, it seems so in the video highlights]

Później rozmawiałem z sędzią, sędzia mówił, że zostałem przyblokowany. Mówię, że nie zostałem przyblokowany, bo ruszyłem do piłki i w ostatnim momencie ktoś mi po prostu podstawił nogę. - I talked to the refeere later. The refeere told that I was blocked. I said I was not blocked, I rushed to clear the ball and in the last moment someone had just tripped me up.

Więc to na pewno kładzie cień na moją grę w dzisiejszym spotkaniu, natomiast te dwie pierwsze... Znaczy, pierwsza i trzecia bramka... ciężko było cokolwiek zrobić. - Well, for sure it casts shadows on my today's performance, but those two first goals... I mean, that first and third goal... It was hard to do anything.

Legia vs Arsenal 5-6 7 Aug 2010 video of all goals

A match with 11 goals on the opening match in the new stadium of Legia Warsaw. Would you believe that?

After watching the video I noticed it's look like a compliation of goalkeepers' mistakes. Fabiański doesn't look good when Legia scored their second goal. They actually started winning 3:0, and then lost the lead.

Read that Wojciech Szczęsny, who substitued Fabiański in the second half, made an important save at the beginning but it's not in the video. Generally it seems that Szczęsny made quite good impression, despite allowing two goals. Fabiański couldn't do much in two of three situations.

Marijan Antolović and Kostiantyn Machnowski, Legia's goalkeepers, gave a performance far from being good, which partly explains why so many goals were scored.

Łukasz Fabiański picspam

Read today rumours that Arsene Wegner want to bring Pepe Reina to Arsenal. Well, I think that it's not going to be Reina, but eventually there is going to be a new goalkeeper in Arsenal and Almunia is going to leave.

Some photos of Łukasz Fabiański from various matches.







Cardiff City vs Arsenal, 25 Jan 2009



Villareal vs Arsenal, 7 Apr 2010. Fabiański substitues Manuel Almunia in the first half. Remember this match, watched it in tv. Almunia was doing pretty good in the first leg match. In the second leg was tretead pretty hard by Villareal players and in the result injuried.







Arsenal vs Chelsea, 18 April 2009. I remember also this one, unfortunately. It was his birthday, the match took place at Wembley, which is something like a sentimental memory for Polish people.

Poland played elimination match againt England there, at 17 October 1973. The match was hard, but Poland managed to draw 1:1 with England, and Jan Tomaszewski who was in the Polish goal was invincible, except for the penalty kick. Poland made to the World Cup, what was a sensation, and Tomaszewski was named "The man, who stopped England" and "The hero of Wembley", greatly impressing the people not only in Poland but also football fans aboard. And one of English coaches called Tomaszewski "a clown" earlier...

What it has to do with Fabiański? For sure he wanted his prefromance to be as impressive as compatriot. But it was not his day, he commited several mistakes and genearally gave rather poor performance.









Liverpool vs Arsenal, 21 Apr 2009





Manchester City vs Arsenal, 2 Dec 2009. Helping Emmanuel Adebayor to his feet.







Arsenal vs Chelsea, 10 May 2010

Emirates Cup: Arsenal vs Milan 1-1, Fabiański played in the match

Watched Arsenal - Milan game, which was a part of Emirates Cup. Łukasz Fabiański was in the goal. I think he did fine. Made 2 saves, one in the last minutes of the game. Was extremely lucky in two situations, when the ball bounced off bar.

Wojciech Szczęsny, another Polish goalkeeper, was on the bench. No place for Manuel Almunia in the squad.

To be honest, Milan goalkeeper, Christian Abbiati had much more work to do than Fabiański. Abbiati made 6 saves, two of them very lucky (a shot, and then a retake). He can't be sure about his place in the squad too, as will have to compete with Marco Amelia in this season.

Back to Fabiański and his chance to be no. 1... I don't think Manuel Almunia is going to stay as no. 1 in Arsenal, but I'm also not sure about Łukasz Fabiański. Arsene Wenger makes an impression that he did not made a decision yet, but I wonder if he is not going to bring another goalkeeper to replace Almunia or someone else. I would really want Łukasz to play as no. 1, if not in Arsenal, then in other club. He didn't had the best season, but he suffered an injury and was not in the good shape. I think he can't wait any longer, he needs to play regularry, especially if he wants to play in the national team.

At 7th Arsenal is going to play friendly with Legia Warszawa, former club of Łukasz Fabiański. It's reported that almost all tickets are already sold out. Wish I could seen this match! Wonder if Fabiański will be in the starting 11.

Then he is going to by a part of the squad for the friendly with Cameroon at 11th August. Looking forward to see him in the goal.

No photos of the goalkeepers from the Arsenal - Milan game, unfortunately. It's not a World Cup, when one has dozens of goalkeepers photos no matter what game it was.

Arsenal - Barca 2:2 31 Mar 2010

What a match! Great to watch for every football fan, but for a goalkeepers fan it was even better. So many stunning saves of Manuel Almunia! Although he was not able to stop Ibrahimovic, who eventually scored two goals for Barcelona, it doesn't changes the fact that thanks to his excellent performance Arsenal didn't lose any goals in the first half.



In the first fifteen minutes of the game he saved two very dangerous shots. It was his evening, no doubt.



He was invincible in the first half. However, at the very beginning of the second Ibrahimovic scored his first goal.





Almunia reacts after a lost goal



According to ESPN stats Manuel Almunia made 8 saves in the game. That's a lot!

On the opposide side of the pitch Valdes made only 1 save. Seemed to be a bit late when Theo Walcott scored the first goal. He also had to face a penalty. Was without a chance to stop it. Fabregas shot was perfect.







Puyol and Bendtner, Valdes in the distance



Theo Walcott scores



Victor Valdes reacts after Puyol is shown a red card





Cesc Fabregas scores a penalty which gives Arsenal a 2:2 draw in the last minutes of the game