He looked at Mark Schwarzer. He asked about Shay Given. He sniffed around Maarten Stekelenburg. If Sunday’s tabloids are correct, he’ll make an offer for Pepe Reina in January. But still Arsene Wenger hasn’t replaced Jens Lehmann.
The former Germany goalkeeper left Arsenal in 2008, and when he went there was a sense that he hadn’t quite been an adequate replacement for David Seaman, who had joined Manchester City for a farewell season in 2003.
Arsenal, though, would love to have a goalkeeper of his quality now. “If you’re going to really be realistic challengers for the Premiership you need a top-class goalkeeper,” former manager George Graham said.
“I think (Manuel) Almunia is a good goalkeeper, but there’s about half a dozen good goalkeepers in the Premier League. I think Arsenal need an outstanding goalkeeper.
Theirs is a fragile method, a way of playing that, when it functions, is both breathtaking and almost impossible to combat, but that is prone to breakdown.
It is a high-risk way of playing, and when the mechanism is that delicate, it is important that at least the casing is sound.
Arsenal are not solid and reliable and that is their beauty, but there are certain positions in which solidity is the most valuable asset.
With Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci, Wenger now at least has a solid centre-back unit.
Alex Song has developed a worrying habit of committing a series of minor fouls, which culminated in his red card at Sunderland last week, but he and Abou Diaby should be able to provide a platform for Cesc Fabregas in midfield.
This leaves one glaring weakness: goalkeeper. Almunia was again badly at fault in Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
He may have saved a penalty, but it was his misjudgement of a through-ball that conceded it in the first-half.
He then let Gonzalo Jara’s shot, which was straight at him, cannon in off his knee and, while he was left badly exposed by his defence for the third goal, he surely followed Chris Brunt far too far having forced him wide, leaving his goal untended when the ball was returned to the centre.
Arsenal were poor in general at the weekend, but they might still have nicked a point or more had it not been for Almunia’s errors.
“I’ve never fathomed why top keepers don’t cost as much as top strikers,” the former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough said when he signed Peter Shilton.
“A save can be as important as a goal but a mistake by a keeper is often more costly than a miss by his teammate at the opposite end of the field.” Clough’s Forest went on to win the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.
Even if his side prove too strong for Partizan in Belgrade in Tuesday’s Champions League group clash, Wenger’s reluctance to invest in that one area — particularly odd given Arsenal announced record profits of 88.6 million dollars last week — may cost his side the chance of European success.
