Wojciech Szczesny
Last but not least, the man himself – Wojciech Szczesny.
At the beginning of the season, the 25 year-old found himself on familiar ground as the club’s no.1 goalkeeper, in the absence of the injured newly recruited David Ospina, brought in to provide stiff competition for the Polish international.
He started nearly every Premier League game, with Damian Martinez filling in where he could. Szczesny’s best game of the season came in a hard fought victory away to West Ham – the club’s last match of 2014. It was on New Years Day in which Szczesny’s life would change.
Arsenal travelled to St. Mary’s away to top 4 chasing Southampton, with rejuvenated spirits after a change of form following a turbulent start to the season.
Unfortunately though, the Gunners fell 2-0 losers on the day, with Szczesny partly to blame for both goals – most notably the first – abandoning his line a wild distance out to chase the charging Sadio Mané on the byline, who somehow found the net from an impossible angle with an audacious chip.
It was later reported that Szczesny was caught having a cheeky cigarette in the stadium showers – an act of treason in modern football and proved to be a costly error from the player. He was subsequently dropped from the starting line-up and hasn’t started a single league game since, forced to watch from the bench as Ospina continued to impress.
Instead, Szczesny has been handed the no.2 role as the club’s cup ‘keeper. He played in both victories in the rounds leading to the final, in which he showed signs of a man low on confidence with two unconvincing performances, again partly at fault for conceding a goal – Reading’s equalizer in the semi-finals.
Whether he maintains his place in goal for Saturday’s final remains to be seen, but he will be made to sweat for it, after a season of shameful disappointment.