4 reasons why Arsenal will finish fourth

#3 Goalkeeping conundrum

The goalkeeping conundrums always seems to find its way to the Emirates

The story of Bela Guttman’s curse on Benfica is a very famous one. For the ones who don’t know what I am talking about, Guttman was the manager of the Benfica side that won two European Cups in a row in 1961 and 1962.

When he asked for a pay-rise after winning the second European Cup, the club board refused it and he subsequently left the club fuming. In his rage, as the story goes, he cursed the club before leaving, saying: “Not in a 100 years from now will Benfica ever be European champions.”

Since then, the Portuguese club have participated in 5 Champions League and 3 Europa League final—and lost all of them.

It seems as though Arsenal are suffering from somewhat of a similar curse: the Jens Lehmann curse. Even though the German never really put a curse on the club, the Gunners have never really had a goalkeeper as consistent as the former Germany international ever since he left.

Be it the joke that Manuel Almunia was, or the mediocrity that Wojciech Szczesny oozed, or the decline in form that Petr Cech is displaying right now (his error allowed Cesc Fabregas to score Chelsea’s third goal last night), the goalkeeping conundrums always seems to find its way to the Emirates.