The FA Cup brings players of this Arsenal side a chance to find their feet again, and none more so than Wojciech Szczesny this afternoon.
Coming in for Premier League regular, David Ospina, the goalkeeper had an uneasy afternoon at Wembley during the Gunners’ 2-1 victory over Reading.
Nevertheless, Arsenal now have an FA Cup final date with either Liverpool or Aston Villa, and the biggest headache Arsene Wenger will have is whether to hand the gloves to the Polish international on May 30th.
WhoScored Rating: 6.68
Out of the 14 players that featured for Arsenal today, Szczesny picked up the worst average rating over the 120 minutes that he played.
The Pole was punished after a series of shaky blunders, when Reading knocked in their equaliser from Gareth McCleary’s second half strike.
It was a goal that pretty much summed up the keepers performance today, after he failed to make his body large and push out a shot that eventually went to goal-line technology.
He pulled off three saves throughout the game and collected once from a set-piece play early on in the first half.
But the man between the sticks at the other end, Adam Federici, pulled off a total of seven saves and managed to frustrate the likes of Ozil and Alexis when parrying shots away, which he did on four key occasions.
Although Szczesny may have had a lot less to do today, his involvement seemed distant, and confidence looked to be at an all-time low.
One positive today was how he demonstrated his determination to meet the ball through a means of punching it clear. It was traits like these that offer some form of an argument to play him in the final.
However, Arsenal fans couldn’t have felt less comfortable every time a pass back was made, as Szczesny didn’t look like he knew what he was doing with his feet today.