No smoke only fire from Woj
ARSENE WENGER hopes Wojciech Szczesny will come back stronger from his time out of the Arsenal firing line... just like Joe Hart did at Manchester City last season.
Gunners boss Wenger will leave it until the last minute today to decide whether or not to keep David Ospina in goal for the clash with City at the Etihad or bring back the Pole for the first time since the 2-0 defeat by Southampton on New Year’s Day.
Szczesny (below) was caught smoking in the showers at St Mary’s following that defeat and was fined £20,000 and dropped from the side as a consequence.
Colombian Ospina was called in to replace him and has kept two cleans sheets since, leaving Wenger with a headache over which of his keepers to go with for this afternoon’s big clash.
It is a similar situation for Szczesny to the one Hart, who will be in goal for City this afternoon, found himself in little more than a year ago when he was replaced by Carlos Pantilimon after suffering a loss of form and confidence.
However, the England No.1 came back even stronger and has responded superbly this season after Willy Caballero was brought in from Malaga in the summer to provide him with even more competition.
Now Wenger will be hoping for a similar response when Szczesny reclaims his place. The Frenchman said: “Wojciech has but he goes a little bit... I took Jens Lehmann out like that.”
Wenger has used Lehmann as an example to Szczesny before – 15 months ago the Arsenal manager spoke of the German keeper’s reaction to being dropped.
“Jens said he would force me to play him again,” Wenger revealed back then and now he is looking for the same response from Szczesny.
Wenger’s other pressing issue over the coming days is his search for a replacement for right-back Mathieu Debuchy, out for three months with a dislocated shoulder.
Wenger, eyeing a move for West Ham’s Winston Reid, added: “The reason we haven’t made a signing yet is because we haven’t found anyone.
“I am not the only one working on the case and it’s not a supermarket where you go in and buy a defender. It’s a market that is very restricted in terms of players who can strengthen the best 10 teams in Europe. You don’t find many.
“And then you have a second handicap of who wants to sell their best players, especially a central defender, in the middle of the season?”
Wenger will look at player statistics as he searches for new signings but he insists good oldfashioned scouting is still the only way to make sure a player has the calibre to join a club of Arsenal’s size.
He said: “What is still the most important is the eye because, for example, a defender could have very good numbers but be susceptible to one big mistake per game, or every five games. The numbers will not detect that.”