Wojciech Szczesny emerged from the rubble of Arsenal’s damaging defeat at Manchester United to declare his intention to seize the unexpected chance handed to him by Arsene Wenger.
The 20-year-old leapt to the head of Wenger’s goalkeeping queue at Old Trafford yesterday when he was handed the starting spot against Manchester United because of concern over Lukasz Fabianski’s hip problem.
It was a remarkable show of faith in the youngster, who had previously played just three Carling Cup games for the Gunners.However, the bold move did not pay dividends as Arsenal slipped to a 1-0 defeat which leaves them two points behind United, having played a game more.
Wenger, though, declared himself satisfied with Szczesny’s contribution. Wenger said “Overall that was a good performance from Wojciech,” said Wenger after the game.
“Szczesny looked a bit nervous in his kicking in the first half but overall with his hands he didn’t make any mistakes.
“In this job you don’t look at the size of the game. When you have the quality, you play. Every big goalkeeper has started at 18 or 19 years of age.
“For example you had Man United keeper Edwin van der Sar, I saw him when he was 18 and he played in big games.” and the player himself is determined not to slip quietly back into the shadows.”I am a reserve goalkeeper at the moment so I need to take every chance I get and this was a massive chance for me,” he said. “I felt that for my debut I did well enough.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for us to get any points but this is my big chance and I need to take it.”
What did you “insiders” think of the young goalkeepers performance?
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