There has been a mountain of paper used and bandwidth taken up with talk about Wojciech Szczesny’s display against Southampton when Arsenal were beaten 2-0 after some comical work by the Pole, not to mention the fact he got caught smoking afterwards.
First of all Szczesny’s father (an ex-Poland keeper) gave his angry response to his son’s treatment after the match, and now the legendary Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski says that Arsene Wenger is simply making a scapegoat of Szczesny to cover his own failings.
“I think the smoking in the showers incident was only an excuse to fine Wojciech,” said Tomaszewski in the Examiner. “Wenger made sure that someone was a scapegoat. He is losing in the race for the Champions League, and if they miss out on the competition, that would be a huge loss for the club. Of course, Szczesny was at fault for both goals against Southampton, but that’s not the most important thing in this situation.”
Tomaszewski also recommended that the Poland national team manager Adam Nawalka should personally visit Wenger to clarify Szczesny’s situation. “Nawalka should head to London and have a one-on-one talk with Arsene Wenger,” Tomaszewski continued. “Everything must be done to solve this situation well for all parties. If Wojciech is dropped, then he should be loaned out, somewhere where he will play regularly. And it has to be done right now, because if we wake up in February, it will be too late.”
It seems that the Poles are very defensive of Szczesny, but surely they must realise that if someone makes disastrous mistakes for the Gunners then it is obvious that Wenger may feel the need to drop him occasionally. They need to stick their noses OUT of Arsenal and leave Wenger to do his job as he sees fit….
I came to spy!……… NO TRANSFERs MADE………. Was i here tonight?….. I do not think so……… OUT LIKE I NEVER CAME
I agree that somehow after that defeat to Saints Szczesny was the only one who’s been critized heavily. When in fact Mert, Kosc and Debuchy were at fault as well.
Now it seems Szczesny has been dropped – and for a reason but IMO Mertesacker was horrendous in the Saints game and has been so bad all season so he should be dropped as well.
What I’m saying if heads need to roll, Szcesnys shouldn’t be the only one.
Think you’re glossing over Szczesnys faults a little. He directly led to both goals being concedes…..him….not the others. They may have done this or thatbbetter in dealing with the situations, but Szczes caused them.
And while I don’t disagree that Per has been substandard, I struggle to think who we could play in his place when we’ve had our fullbacks pulling shifts as CBs…..such is our transfer policy of always pinching pennies and leaving gaps in the squad.
As much as Szczesnys performance was shambolic, juhislihis is not wrong. Mistakes are easier to detect when a goalkeeper makes them. First goal could have been avoided if Mert or Debuchy (Dont quite remember) ran to the goal line when Szczesny ran out after the ball, but none of them gave it a though before they saw that Mané could shoot to score. The second goal however is pretty much the keepers solo performance resulting in a silly goal. Three players infront with noone close by, except for the one player Szczesny manages to “clear” the ball to.
Per MAYBE could have acted differently and managed to block the shot. But we’re not talking about a fumbled cross, or sloppy kicking which any goalkeeper can make…he has made two errors that DIRECTLY led to goals against us.
He’s had 4 years as undisputed #1 and for me that experiment hasn’t worked. He’s decent, but there’s a good number better than him and enough is enough he deserves his criticism and his subsequent benching.
Can’t wait until Ospina has a bad game and everyone is begging for Szes back. We’re lucky. We have three good keepers. I still think Szes is number one. Not sure how to get past this drama though
Yes and no.
The defence has surely been poor and exposed him from time to time, however this doesn’t excuse the fact that he still makes poor decisions at times, (coming off his line for the first Saints goal) and doesn’t give off a commanding vibe. For the second saints goal he flapped and panicked, (largely due to the first mistake).
I never get the feeling with Schez that he’s in control or calm.
Unfortunately I have felt he’s not great for a while and hope Ospina gets a try out for some time now. If Ospina starts the City game we’ll really see if he’s up to the job.
UTD’s defense have left De Gea feeling like he is in a firing squad but he has managed to stop a lot of goals and save their sorry asses.
Schez simply isn’t good enough!
Mertesacker cannot be dropped becuase ther is no one else, Wengers fault. Noe it looks like Chambers will play for the rest of the season. In my opinion Chambers is behind Debuchy,Jenkinson and Bellerin for the rb spot. Why he is automatically promoted to the first team is the big question first and foremost, since he wasn’t even a regular at Southampton. When Chambers plays at RB we concede so many crosses becuase he doesn’t blcok any of them. This again is wengers fault.
Scszesny has made many mistakes, and its about time he is dropped for good. When he was out
Martinez, 3 cleansheet out of 5/6 games. (6 if you want to count manu game).
Scszesny 6 cleansheets out of 23 games.
Ospina 2 cleansheets 3 games.
Exactly this. Szcz is replaceable, that’s the difference, we have TWO competent goalies (who have performed arguably better than him when called upon) to take his place when he has a howler unlike in defence where it’s whoever is fittest gets to play at the moment.
@juhislihis. You are not wrong about Per though, how he hasn’t been dropped is beyond me!
We have Kos back now so I’d prefer Chambers or even Monreal, (if Gibbs is fit) to partner Kos rather than have Per step onto the pitch.
It’s beyond you to realise we have had too many injuries for us to drop Mertesacker?
We all know that our defence has problems,but one thing you should know is that szsc has never showed up this season the only game i know where he showed up is against liverpool
Lets just say his personal performance has took a dip!
The reason chezza is being made a scapegoat is probably down to the fact Arsene needs time to make his next move – he’s stalling- or he’s a master of deflection(just like politicians) hence why chezza was dropped and he said it was tactical.
I also believe Arsene was covering for his yet again ineptness in fielding bfg and little or no protection from his defenders or midfileders..
(What really happened is the players lost the fight) Southampton wanted it more.. Which is usually the case against the so called bigger or better teams (Sunday we shall find out)
Irrespective of statistics saying bfg and kos have a good partnership… ‘The best last season’ well well well the best wasn’t good enough as it got us 4th place.. And not the title we probably should have won.. Arsene needed a striker last January we signed an injured midfielder ffs..
Point being is that the defence has been a shambles this season – chezza isn’t totally to blame and although at times he is a headless chicken.. He still is probably our best keeper.. ( we still need a world class keeper to challenge-but that’s another story)
Arsene will do JUST enough to try to get 4th place and if we don’t the excuses will be injuries.. Not his lack of ambition..
I still have hope though-we WILL sign a player or 2..
I’ll bet my big nose we do..!
Maybe but Im a Ospina supporter at the moment and hope he plays against Man Shitty
I Want Szczesny to improve but he needs to earn his place. Perhaps play him against Brighton in FA Cup as a starter
Wheelshire, ZZZny with their smoking habit, the whole POLAND is trying to dictate over AFC decisions, last year was GIROUD with his extra marital affairs and of course the main Plot WENGER’s signings that never materialize, we are becoming a SOAP OPERA the perfect script for a Reality TV show, just as LIVERFOOL.
Off-topic
If its true that both Arteta and Debuchy are out for 3 months and that Arsenal forgot to put a return clause in Jenkison’ contract with west ham then thathen Wenger has to get signings this month. And he must Not wait until the last day.
More like a goat on skates goat
15 days and counting, nothing happening
No, he really is shit
it’s official..Arsene has signed a cheque..for £2.99. A friend of a friend knows someone he once met in a pub..
Anyway he said AW bought a LED torch in Argos..
Perhaps he Bought it to help him see what the f@ck is going on while his head is in his own Arse’n.
Szczesnys mistakes and smoking overshadowed the Southampton game. We lost 2-0. Fair enough. But were we looking to play for a 0-0? One day Sanchez did not score or assist and we got nullified.
Man C this Sunday. Let’s find out more.
Man City 5 – 1 Arsenal
Nasri 2 minutes from a sloppy BFG clearance.
Camera with zoom in on Schez on bench to see a big fat smug happy smile, which will be posted on front sports page of every paper.
And yes I am an Arsenal supporter, but I’m also a realist and we suck especially against top teams.
#Wenger out
Don’t hold your breath for any signings.
I expect none so ad to not be disappointed.
Schez must be dropped, hell loan him out it might be a good wake up.
He’s too comfortable at arsenal b/c he’s been there forever so he thinks he’s mr. arsenal and i hate to break it to mr. selfie but he’s just not good enough. Ospina is better and martinez is not that far away but i honestly think we should get Italy’s #2 or as they’re calling him ‘the new buffon’ or even ochoa.
Exactly same as Jack, think they Arsenal greats, but they not. They expendable.
Off topic
I cant wait to see the look on Craig Burleys face the next time he appears on ESPN.Last week he was convinced Torres wldnt score at Athletico because he didnt perform at he dear Chelsea. Now halfway into a game at Real he has 2.Pandits just hate certain players and teams. AFC being one of them
He’s not a scapegoat, he’s an average goalkeeper who thinks too highly of himself to work on getting better. To be honest, if old Polish goalkeepers get their panties in a twist every time Szczesny legitimately gets dropped because he’s has bad game then I hope he’s off in the summer. It’s tiresome and if I was Szczesny I’d be publicly pleading with them to shut up.
In the first half Szcz
cleared the ball with his foot.
In the second half he kicked out
with his foot again but straight to a defender.
The first half clearance was the best option
but the second half attempted clearance
was a lazy decision. He should have fallen on the ball.
Szcz needs to cut out the fancy stuff and simplify his game.
Being benched will remind him that he is a Football GK
not a crowd pleasing acrobat.
69_% of talk sport listeners reckon it’s a home win as oppose to 6% the gooners win..
Call me a blinkered delusional fantasist.. But I think I’m one of those 6% ers.
For 1 we won’t be beat like last seasons 6-3 we have learned as we did against Liverpool ..
Secondly we have sanchez – where sanchez is there’s always hope.
Thirdly city love to play open attractive football.. They WILL give us chances.. Burnley????
Lastly- it’s played on a Sunday tea time and not a 12.45 Saturday afternoon where all our debacles took place..
I’d probably settle for a point – unless we are 3-0 up at half time.. 🙂
I think a draw would be a great result but with mike dean as ref it’s 12 v 11
Hello old friend
Long time no see..
It’s that time of year again..
And yes – Id settle for a draw..
Would be great if a quality DM and a C B follows bielik! Coyg!
Szczesny has been a average mistake-prone goalkeeper with world class reaction saves and terrible decision making for the past several years. I have lobbied for him to be removed from the lineup many times and I think we should move on from him. I realize that he had lots of potential, but he has not matured a bit with his decision making, leadership, and judgement of flight on set pieces. If we haven’t seen any marked improvement thus far, we are unlikely to ever see much.
The biggest difference in how he has looked in the past several years has been how well the defense in front of him plays. Last year, with the Kos-Per partnership locking things down all year, Szczesny looked great. When he had to act however he still made plenty of mistakes and only some outstanding reaction saves made him look like a hero occasionally.
World class keepers are first and foremost smart decision makers and good to great positionally. The best ones have world class reactions on top of that. Szczesny has relied entirely on his athletic ability and reactions and Arsene and the fans have not held him accountable for his mistakes for years.
I think it is unfair that he is experiencing so much hate over what is really just another poor performance in a long line of them when he was really getting shelled because of a very poor defense, but I still think we need a better goalkeeper. Whether Ospina is it is still out for the jury. We have young Martinez who looks promising but not ready.
It is long past time, but perhaps Arsene is finally ready to make the call on Wojciech’s potential. Is he ever going to develop into that world class keeper or not? How long are we going to give him? Can we continue to risk games when we have better options available?
Now if we could just get him to ask the same question about Wilshere, Diaby, and a couple others…..