Pellegrini’s big ‘steal’ the real deal

By Allen Cummings

If the creation of every good team  starts with a good goalkeeper then Manuel Pellegrini is on the right track as far as I’m concerned.

I don’t think there’s much doubt that on the evidence we’ve seen so far this season, his star buy of the summer has to be Lukasz Fabianski who already looks to have been a positive ‘steal’ at just £7m from Swansea City.

Forget the fact that he’s conceded nine goals in our first three games. As far as I can recall, he can’t be blamed for any of them. Our missed chances was the big story against Arsenal last Saturday, and rightly so.

But it shouldn’t be overlooked Lukasz made at least three stunning saves to keep us in the game, when the Gunners had goal scoring chances of their own. It was the same in the two previous defeats by Liverpool and Bournemouth, where Fabianski was probably our stand out performer.

It’s fair to say not everyone was happy with Fabianski’s arrival. Adrian has built up a loyal following since his arrival from Real Betis in June 2013. In that time he’s seen off challenges from both Darren Randolph and last season from England’s Joe Hart.

Some questioned if the Polish international was the right calibre of ‘keeper to displace him this time. For his part at the time Pellegrini insisted both ‘keepers would start the season on a level playing field, and he’d make his decision for first choice goalkeeper on form alone.

No-one was guaranteed the No1 spot. In the event his decision to start with Lukasz has been proved 110% correct. As expected Adrian got his first outing of the season against AFC Wimbledon last night.

Despite conceding in the first few minutes, a goal he could do little about, he had precious little opportunity to impress in the game because of West Ham’s almost total dominance. Consequently I expect Pellegrini to have Fabianski back between the sticks for the visit of Wolves on Saturday.

A browse through the posts from Swansea City fans on social media directly follow Fabianski’s transfer in June left no-one in any doubt they were absolutely gutted to lose their ‘Player of the Season’. We’re beginning to realise why.

As we’ve already seen he’s an excellent shot-stopper. But he’s also strong and decisive when coming for crosses – and his distribution is pretty good, too. So far we haven’t seen him as vocal and expressive as Adrian always was when working the West Ham crowd – probably one of the reasons why the Spaniard enjoys so much favour with the fans.

Adrian will always have his supporters. But if Fabianski continues to turn in the kind of performances we’ve seen from him so far, it certainly wont be long before the faithful will be singing his name just as loudly as they did for the popular Spaniard.