Flappy Fabianski

A picture is worth a thousand words. Ewood park, May 3rd 2010, Arsenal keeper Fabianski sits inside his goal with his legs criss crossed apple sauce, after being muscled into letting in Blackburn’s winning goal. Next to him is the most precious piece of leather occupying what has now become it’s familiar location for Arsenal fans. Imagine that. He sits there, a grown man, playing in a competitive sport. A physically competitive sport I say, am not talking golf, yet he sits there criss crossed like a little … you can finish the sentence.

On his face, Fabianski wears bemusement like Ochio Cinco in a ‘hot pink’mink coat. Picture a child that has been told Santa Claus aka Father Christmas is not real. That was Fabianski's look of disbelief. On the sidelines, Big Sam shows controlled elation at his tactics, his counterpart Mr. Wenger customarily thrusts forward both hands at the referee in complaint. On the pitch there is visibly no eye contact from Fabianski’s teammates to him, the look of despair is a euphemistic observation of the Arsenal players.

A great deal was at stake here as victory would have clinched the 3rd champions league spot for Arsenal, frog leaping the qualification stage straight to group stages. The plot thickened further given that Arsenal faced the unthinkable prospect of losing third Champions league spot to
their arch rivals tottenham, after having already lost the head to head game at white hart lane 3 weeks earlier. On that occasion, his senior Alumnia managed a 2 inch vertical in an attempt to keep out what has turned out to be the EPL goal of the season. A handicapped keeper would have done better, but I digress.

You have to watch the video closely to truly understand the nature of the man Wenger employed to be our last line of defense. Before I get too hard on Fabianski, let me get hard on him. Part of being a professional competitor is to study your opponent. Big Sam was singing “Ring de alarm” all prior week as to how he was going to rough up the squeaky clean boys from
North London. Perhaps Wenger advised his players to beware of strong arm tactics, maybe he didn’t. As a professional, you earn your money by being prepared for every situation no matter what. (For definition of professional, see Ryan Giggs)

Fabianski would have had my respect if in the process of being bullied to conceding the goal, he had broken several teeth, broken as many ribs, punched into a coma, buried his cleets into any or several or even all of those fouling Blackburn players. As an Arsenal fan, I would have wore the loss with pride, and bragged to other teams to “send dem come” if you want to see some “bloodclot” bleeding up in this place. But he sat, inside the territory he was supposed to protect, legs criss crossed apple sauce, and nowhere in the battle zone in front of him was a sign of a struggle. None, not even one bleeding gunner.

Where Van Gundy dangled precariously on Alonzo Mouning's ankle, no Arsenal player dared to get dirty when they had to. Where Henry saw the necessity to palm the ball twice and cross for Gallas to score their way to the world cup, 7 arsenal defenders not counting Fabianski were outmuscled by two, Samba & Dunn (Roberts does not count). I have the proof, see below.



And you ask why I am a frustrated Arsenal fan? Just look at this mess. A picture is worth a thousand words.