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Arsenal's Record At Saving Penalties Is Utterly Atrocious

Arsenal's Record At Saving Penalties Is Utterly Atrocious

The Gunners conceded two against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Penalties are obviously weighed in the favour of the team taking them, that's kind of the whole point. But you'd expect goalkeepers to save the odd one or two, well that's not the case for Arsenal who aren't very good at stopping them at all.

When it comes to penalties it tends to be a win-win situation for the man standing between the sticks, save it and you are a hero, fail to save it and it isn't really your fault. You basically have to give the pen away for it to be your fault.

Some goalkeepers actually do pretty well when they come up against spot kicks, with Inter Milan goalkeeper Samir Handanovic infamously good at stopping them. The Slovenian has twice saved six in a league season, once for Udinese and once for Inter.

Handanovic is a genius when it comes to saving penalties. Image: PA Images.
Handanovic is a genius when it comes to saving penalties. Image: PA Images.

On Sunday Arsenal could have done with the 33 year old as they conceded two penalties in a 4-2 FA Cup third round loss to Nottingham Forest. Both were scored with David Ospina getting nowhere near them.

It's not the first time that an Arsenal goalie has failed to save his team either. In fact no Arsenal goalkeeper has saved a spot kick in open play in four and a half years!

Ospina can't stop Forest from going 3-1 ahead. Image: PA Images.
Ospina can't stop Forest from going 3-1 ahead. Image: PA Images.

In that time Vito Mannone, Lukasz Fabianski, David Ospina and Petr Cech have all kept goal for the Gunners and every single one of them has failed to save penalties in normal time.

Forest's first penalty was a stonewall decision after Rob Holding's mistake of upending Matty Cash and put the Championship side 3-1 up. Danny Welbeck put the tie back in jeopardy by making it 3-2.

Forest then won a second penalty but it was controversial as the penalty decision was questionable but Kieran Dowell also seemed to touch the ball twice but the goal stood.

It was the Gunner's first FA Cup first round defeat since 1996!

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Topics: Penalties, FA Cup, Arsenal