Arsenal No.1 at least has some backing after a week to forget.
Arsenal legend and former Gunners goalkeeping coach Bob Wilson has backed Wojciech Szczesny despite his recent poor form and his reported fine for smoking.
Szczesny has a fight on his hands to convince Arsene Wenger he has what it takes the be the Gunners premier shot-stopper after his gaffes both on and off the field against Southampton on New Years Day.
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The finger was pointed at Szczesny for at least one of the goals conceded by Arsene Wenger’s side and was reportedly given a hefty fine by the Arsenal boss for an ill-advised post-defeat smoke in the showers – of all places.
However, Bob Wilson, a former Arsenal no.1 himself said Szczesny should not be dropped and accused the Pole’s detractors of having short memories.
“What niggles me about this recent criticism after the Southampton game is that if people go back four days to the West Ham game, his performance was so good he won us the three points,” exclaimed Wilson to the Evening Standard.
“If you are looking for incidents to blame him, put the first goal at Southampton against him, fine, but don’t start arguing with me about the second goal because it was not his fault.
“He did not have his best game but most ex-keepers would say the last thing you want to do with your No1 goalie is give him a rest. If I was goalkeeping coach there now and Arsene was asking me, I would say, ‘don’t drop him’.
“Every goalkeeper makes mistakes. I spend a lot of time with David Seaman and all anybody asks him was, ‘what happened with Ronaldinho and Nayim?'”
Szczesny is expected to have the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of Wenger when the Gunners play Stoke City at the Emirates this weekend.