Arsene Wenger's real blind spot is over his keepers

By Mark Lawrenson

Published 22:28 30/10/09

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Arsene Wenger is nothing short of a managerial genius.

But if there is one thing that has baffled me about the Arsenal keeper then it is his weakness when it comes to keepers.

Look at every top team and they have a top keeper. Peter Schmeichel probably won enough points when at Manchester United to help them win the title.

United now have Edwin van der Sar. Chelsea have Petr Cech. Liverpool have Pepe Reina. Arsenal have, er, Manuel Almunia.

Almunia is the odd one out and Wenger, despite claiming to have four top quality keepers on the books, doesn’t have a keeper who can win the title.

Lukasz Fabianski has promise so, by all accounts, does Wojciech Szczesny. Almunia has experience but is not top class.

Vito Mannone’s mistake at West Ham last week was almost comical - he saved the ball and then pushed the ball back into the danger zone. Any top keeper will always somehow claw the ball away.

Arsenal have had some good keepers. They won the title with David Seaman and Jens Lehmann. But it staggers me that Wenger doesn’t go out and buy himself a top keeper.

That is a rare weakness though in the Arsenal team. That is why I find it hard to take Robbie Keane seriously when he said that Tottenham are as good as Arsenal and even have a stronger bench.

They are definitely catching up and a few weeks ago may have been capable of snatching a point. But Arsenal appear to be finding form and Tottenham are missing Modric, Lennon and Defoe is suspended.

Arsenal do have quality in their squad - apart from the keeper. They also have some youngsters coming through as we saw in the Carling Cup.

But how many of the team which beat Liverpool will make it? Kieran Gibbs and Aaron Ramsey. As for the rest, they will probably make careers elsewhere.

In fact, Arsenal just appear to be paying for their academy by selling the likes of Sidwell, Larsson and Muamba even though they don’t make it at Arsenal.