Welcome to the “History Behind the Number”.
This is hopefully going to be a weekly section where I will pick the best 3-4 players that have worn the kit number for Arsenal and I will bring in a guest for each section to give their favorite or one to watch for the future who wears that number.
This week I will be looking at the number 1, which has been worn by many prestigious and well-accomplished goalkeepers for the Gooners.
I have also brought in Dan Critchlow (or afcDW) who is a senior writer for the Daily Cannon as well as writing about the Youth Team for the Arsenal Review. If you would like to see some of his pieces or follow him, his Twitter account is @afcDW.
I’d like to make this segment where the players that have worn the numbers are known to the younger audience as well so players such as Liam Brady or David O’Leary who are iconic players for Arsenal have been excluded for those reasons.
Players during the 90s era have been included though as they are also a vital part of Arsenal’s history.
David Seaman- 1990/91-2002/03
*Dates are of the time the player has worn the kit number, not been at the club.
One of the most well-known names to wear number one for Arsenal and is England’s second-most capped goalkeeper behind Peter Shilton with 75. Known for his famous moustache, he joined Arsenal in 1990 after 141 appearances with Queens Park Rangers.
George Graham acquired Seaman’s services for £1.3m which at the time, was a record for the most expensive fee on a goalkeeper. In his debut season, he was part of the team that won the League Cup, a sign of good things to come.
Seaman was praised by other goalkeepers and spectators for his excellent agility and reflexes and overall spectacular responsiveness which made him so reliable. In total, he won 12 trophies at Arsenal, including four FA Cups and 2 Premier League titles.
Jens Lehmann- 2003/04-2007/08
Jens is arguably the best goalkeeper Arsenal have had except for David Seaman and Pat Jennings. Jens reached the UEFA Champions League Final with Arsenal in 2006, although the story of that was unlucky and didn’t go too well. He was also selected for three World Cup squads for Germany as well as being part of the 2003/04 Invincibles squad that went unbeaten for 48 matches.
Jens was the replacement of David Seaman in 2003, who had left for Manchester City towards the end of his career. His debut season was indeed the Invincible season and he had played every match without losing. However, despite being an excellent keeper for the majority of the time, as every footballer does (often goalkeepers) he made crucial mistakes that led to him being dropped and replaced some of the time.
Jens was given another chance after competitor Manuel Almunia also had a dip in form in 2006, although bringing down Samuel Eto’o in the Champions League Final in the first half and being sent off was one of the many downs in his career.
Rival fans must consider that in his prime, he was one of the best goalkeepers in the world and that his handling, positioning, and how he could read the play before it had even started made him one of the best.
Wojciech Szczesny- 12/13-14/15
From the 70s onwards, there have been only 12 goalkeepers to wear number one for Arsenal. This is why the third choice for the best goalkeepers was very hard. An obvious decision would be Pat Jennings but I’m not including that because most people reading wouldn’t have watched him in action regularly.
That is why I have picked Polish no.1 Szczesny, who joined Arsenal in the academy in 2006, and moved his way up the ranks to the first team in 2009, eventually gaining the starting goalkeeper spot. For his first few years, he was excellent and a real asset to the starting XI. Szczesny was at the club for 8 years, although had loan spells at Brentford and Roma during his tenure in North London.
Wojciech was known for his superb shot-stopping skills as well as reflexes but always remained very heavily criticized by ex-Arsenal players and pundits. He was dropped for David Ospina in 2014 after some horrible performances and that seemed to be the end when he was loaned out to Roma in 2016.
Despite his low confidence, he excelled at Roma and many Italian clubs liked what they had seen. Come to the end of the loan, Juventus had swooped in for him in 2017 where he still plays to this day. At Arsenal, Szczesny won 3 trophies, 2 of which were FA Cups and 1 Community Shield. Arguably this selection is invalid because his prime seemed to be in Italy where he has won twice the amount of trophies in a shorter amount of time, but he still remains a firm part of Arsenal’s goalkeeper history.
GUEST’S PICK:
For the fourth and final player to wear the number one shirt, I have spoken to Dan Critchlow, who specializes for The Arsenal Review in the academy, where the starting keeper for every matchday wears the number one shirt.
Therefore he has kindly selected his one to watch, who is none other than:
Arthur Okonkwo- 2021:
I’d say one to watch in the future would be Arthur Okonkwo, especially given his new contract with the club and new role as the third-choice first-team goalkeeper.
He looked nervous on his first-team friendly debut against Hibs with that mistake he made, which has probably given people the wrong idea about him. He’s long been highly rated within the academy and I’ve never seen an error like that from him before.
He actually started his U23 career with three clean sheets in four games and was only set back by a health problem that kept him out for the 2019/20 season.
Since then Okonkwo has returned to the pitch and he’s been knocking on the door of the first-team squad, regularly traveling with them to matches last season and clearly impressing behind the scenes enough to get his new deal.
He’s also an England U18 international and he kept four clean sheets in five games with them and that is why he is my one to watch in the goalkeeper spot.
Thanks for reading the first article of the “History Behind the Number”, where every week I will review four players that have worn that number for Arsenal. If you liked it, make sure to let me know in the comments below or on Twitter, and if you would like to be a guest and give your say on a certain squad number do let me know and I can get you involved.