Recent bad mistakes in high profile games has led to a lot of criticism and comments Fabianski, including the view expressed by Matthew Rice-Smith in his article Jeepers Keepers “Fabianski is just plainly not good enough, not even for a number 2 at a top club...” I believe comments such as these are both unfair and untrue and before the Stoke FA Cup game he has played very well in all the games he has appeared in this season. Indeed I would contend he is the best goalkeeper technically at Arsenal at the moment, and while he may not be good enough for us at the moment, this is because this is due to poor management of him and the goalkeeping position in general - not him.

Arsenal bought Fabianski in 2007, as he was rated as one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe. Technically he seems an excellent goalkeeper, with great positioning, generally good reading of the game (FA Cup semi-final excepted), fantastic reflexes (witness the double save against Wigan in the Carling Cup last season) and someone who (unlike Almunia) dominates his area and when he goes for crosses invariably gets them. He also seems mentally strong. Having misjudged the cross after Stoke’s first goal he then dealt with every high ball into the penalty area very well - compare Almunia’s pathetic efforts at Stoke in the league last season. The same happened after the horrible error in the Porto game, making some difficult saves look easy thanks to great positioning, (something which Almunia still lacks).

Quality plus experience equals top goalkeeper

We need to remember that at 24 he is still very young for a goalkeeper, with goalkeepers not starting to reach their peaks until their 30s. Indeed our last two high quality keepers, Seaman and Lehmann did not reach their prime until at least 32. More than any other position quality comes from experience, i.e. playing lots of games. All the world’s best past and present (Seaman, Kahn, Cech, Buffon, Casillas etc) had all played hundreds of games before reaching their peak. Even then, experienced goalkeepers make horrendous errors such as Buffon throwing the ball into his own net against Celtic a few years ago or Cech’s howler against Turkey in Euro 2008. Fabianski has barely played more than five games in a row since his arrival, thus not gained enough experience.

Goalkeepers are uniquely vulnerable in that when they make a mistake it almost certainly results in a goal (thank goodness the same does not apply to Clichy, Diaby, Song or Denilson or we would be in a relegation battle) and young goalkeepers make more mistakes than most. This makes being a young goalkeeper at a club challenging for honours very difficult and requires brave and clever management, like not playing them once a month and then dropping them.

Real Madrid made Casillas its number one when he was aged 19. While he made his fair share of mistakes, the club kept faith with him and 500-600 top level games and ten years later he is one of the world’s best. An example in the Premier League is Pepe Reina. He was signed for Liverpool in 2005, aged only 23, but having played over 200 top flight games in Spain. While he was rocky in the first couple of seasons, particularly with crosses, 200 games plus for Liverpool later he has arguably, along with Given, become the best goalkeeper in our league, aged 27.

Weak management equals weak goalkeeping position

Wenger should have either made Fabianski Arsenal’s number one and accept that he will make mistakes (like Casillas at Madrid and half the Arsenal first team squad), or he should have loaned him out to another Premier League team or top flight team abroad (Paris Saint Germain were thought to interested a year ago) over the past couple of seasons to gain experience and gone and bought an experienced top quality keeper. It is not as though we did not have the opportunity, with Shay Given rumoured to be interested in signing for us before his move to Man City. Instead Wenger has done the worst possible thing of sticking with a poor goalkeeper who has got worse as first choice and refusing to let the younger more talented player get the sufficient experience.

While none of our goalkeepers are a top quality ‘keepers yet, it should be said in their defence that none of them are helped by the weakness of our defensive organisation, which leaves them overexposed. Even a top goalkeeper at the peak of his game would struggle playing behind our defence this season. The situation could have been managed far better and the only one who can be blamed for that is the manager. He cannot claim lack of time or opportunity to solve a problem that has been apparent for the last three or four seasons.

Despite recent events I would still maintain Fabianski is the best goalkeeper we have, but unless he gets the right management, i.e. the opportunity to play lots of games, he will continue to fail to deliver. He should be given a long run in the side until the end of the season to give him more experience. We are not good enough to win the Premier League or Champions League and should - judging by the other teams - comfortably finish third and gain automatic Champions League qualification regardless. Then in the summer, we can sign a more experienced goalkeeper and Fabianski can be loaned out next season to gain the experience he so badly needs.