Almunia: Underrated

Instead of doing a news roundup today I wanted to write about our no.1 goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia. Talking to the Evening Standard recently, our Spanish goalkeeper had this to say:

"Of course the No.1 jersey at Arsenal is very important. It has been famous for the great goalkeepers in the club's history that have worn it before so it's a big responsibility.
"But at the same time it's a great thing to enjoy for me and I hope that people can be happy with my performances.
"I'm very happy to wear this fantastic number for Arsenal and I'm pleased with how things are going; I'm feeling very well and we have not conceded too many goals, although we always need to improve.
"I think this season I am growing as a goalkeeper and hope I can grow more as the season progresses."

I think Almunia has improved tremendously during his years here, especially since he's been first choice. He's already played a number of big matches for us, including the League Cup final in 2007, and one that most people tend to forget about, the Champions League final in 2006 (he played about 75 minutes of it). During his early years here he struggled and was vulnerable to making many faults. He has always had excellent reflexes, but would often be found way to far off his line coming for loose balls, or would show the occasional bad positioning that lead to a goal. He also failed to be a real leader in goal and was not the best at organising the defense.

But over the years he's improved. Last season whilst our first-choice keeper he developed tremendously and one could argue that, behind Flamini and Sanga, was the biggest revelation of last season. But still he had his doubters. The old arguments were brought out again and again against him and many said that we would lose the title because we didn't have a world-class keeper.

Then, starting at the end of last season and so far in this, Almunia has been solid as a rock. Only once can I remember him foolishly coming out to clear a ball, but he wasn't punished for it, and he has since stopped doing so. He can now constantly be seen yelling to his defense and organising them on corners and set pieces, and his reflexes and positioning are world-class. He has made save after save this season and without him we could quite possibly have conceded at least 10 goals already this season.

But alas, such is the curse of a goalkeeper (trust me, I was one in my youth) that he is the least noticed player on the pitch - except when he makes a mistake. The keeper can put in solid performance after solid performance, but until he does something truly spectacular, it is rarely noticed. I would argue that Almunia has quite possibly been one of our two or three best performers this season. He's been solid as a rock, and has developed into quite the commendable goalkeeper. How he doesn't get into the national side, I'll never know, but an international or not, he, along with our two fullbacks, are quite possibly the best players in our defense.

Here's hoping Almunia's excellent form continues and he is finally noticed by one or two fans. Until next time,

Fab 4