Arsenal: Jan Oblak ‘upgrade’ purely conceptual and nothing more

Arsenal ran flat into another brick wall keeper in Jan Oblak, who has been linked to the Gunners, but the upgrade he provides is conceptual, and little else.

It’s never surprising when a keeper plays out of his shoes against Arsenal. Ever since Fraser Forster became the second coming of Lev Yashin, I accepted that, so long as the Gunners played the game, they would find the best in keepers.

That said, when happens against someone like David de Gea or Jan Oblak, it makes sense, because they are the best of the bunch, and if you call upon them, they will answer.

These are two keepers that ensured a result against the Gunners, almost single-handedly. And it’s a keeper like that that reminds us of exactly what we do not have for ourselves at the Emirates, where have a past-due Petr Cech and the Colombian enigma, David Ospina.

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When you think about it, it’s incredibly daft. We had Cech and Ospina, neither of whom had much of an upside, and we also had Wojciech Szczesny, who has upside for days and a determination to be at his best with the Gunners.

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We let the Pole go and wonder why this is such a problem. It’s because of decisions like that.

Now, we are left trying to pick up the pieces. How can we find a keeper who is actually going to helps us save points, rather than be a potential liability, letting extra points squeak into the net behind him?

Many would want to see us go right to the horse’s mouth and land Jan Oblak. That’s fair. Obviously we should go for the best, seeing as how we want to bet he best. But Oblak is going to cost something like £90m, which, I shouldn’t need to tell you, is insane.

As such, while Oblak did indeed reinforce how badly we need a real, dynamic keeper, he is not the one to be it. He merely provides the concept of what we need to pursue.

Thankfully, there are options. Oh, how there are options. Alban Lafont and Timo Horn are at the top of the list, as these are two guys on poor sides who know how to govern the posts, particularly in panicky situations. And they come at small fractions of the cost that Oblak will seemingly cost.

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It’s been a question all year, our goal-keeping situation. But Oblak turned that question into a statement. We need a new keeper right now.