Almunia Firmly Ousts Lehmann From Arsenal’s Number One Spot

It’s always a great feeling as a goalkeeper when your card is up. When you have to prove your worth in front of your peers and show that you’re not just another bench warmer with a million dollar pay check lounging around sipping Gatorade from a tall glass on the sidelines (I don’t know where I come up with this material). Manuel Almunia has firmly cemented his spot as preferred number one ahead of Jens Lehmann and rightly so, with a stellar Arsenal performance against Tottenham the other night.

Now there were a few key things said by Wenger that really resonate with what being a persistent and patient goalkeeper entails:

“Manuel is a player who had no CV when he came here but he is creating one now,” he said. “When you do that in a big club, that is difficult, but he has worked hard and he is making his name now through his performances.

“I am not in the situation where I have any bad feelings towards Jens Lehmann. He is 200 per cent professional but we have three goalkeepers of top class and the two who do not play can feel that my decisions are not justified.” (Source: AFP).

Being able to stick to your guns over the long haul is something called pushing through “The Dip” (thanks Seth Godin), the difference between those that succeed, and those that fall off by the wayside (especially relevant in goalkeeping), is that those whom persist during the hard times (like trying to establish yourself in a large club or organization for that matter) win in the end. You can use the above thinking in your goalkeeping, where you must compete against more established or senior players.

The following video is a pre-match warm up video between Almunia and Lehmann at the beginning of the year:

Did you notice any slip ups in Lehmann’s game?

It will be extremely tough for Lehmann to re-establish himself in the number one position at Arsenal again, unless he practices some voodoo, or Almunia has a slip up at training (freaky things like this are known to happen). If Lehmann was more accepting of the fact that his words and attitude got him in a whole lot of mess, then maybe he would be given another chance after the initial blunders earlier this season?