Wojciech Szczesny: Time to shine after years of youthful arrogance
By Devin Nguyen
2013/14 Premier League season
After a few years in Arsenal’s first-team, Szczesny proved himself a precocious young goalkeeper with a distinctive presence on the field.
He would enjoy two years as Arsenal’s starting goalkeeper, before, in 2013/14 Premier League season, earning the Premier League Golden Glove award for recording the most clean sheets in the season.
The honor would be split with Arsenal’s current goalkeeper Petr Cech who was with Chelsea at the time.
Szczesny was growing into his role as a voice in the locker room and a big personality on and off the pitch. He was becoming a fan favorite and even professed his desire to be Arsenal goalkeeper for the next decade.
Southampton vs Arsenal (2-0), January 1, 2015
Arsenal was facing an upstart Southampton team under Ronald Koeman that featured Sadio Mane, Graziano Pellè and Toby Alderweirald. Southampton sat fourth at the time, while Arsenal was behind in fifth. An important away match against direct rivals.
It was a poor showing by Arsenal and Szczesny in particular. He made huge mistakes for both Southampton goals; for the first goal, he came out unnecessarily vacating his goal and allowing Mane to chip him from a tight angle and on the second goal, he lethargically kicked the ball to a waiting Dusan Tadic when he could have gathered the ball easily.
After the second goal, it was obvious Szczesny was not brimming with confidence as he immediately clutched for his water bottle still seated on the ground with the ball in the back of the net.
The rest of the eleven were not impressive either, but Szczesny’s howlers were too shocking to overlook. He made matters worse when reports came out after the game that he was found smoking a cigarette in the dressing room showers.