Arsenal (10/1 in the Champions League Outright betting) maintained their 100 per cent start to their Champions League campaign with a 3-1 win against 10-man Partizan Belgrade and Arsene Wenger singled out the often-derided Lukasz Fabianksi for a ‘faultless’ performance.
The Gunners, who made six changes from the side beaten by West Brom in the Premier League on Saturday, took control through goals from Andrey Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh and Sebastien Squillaci, but Fabianski saved a penalty from Cleo, who had earlier equalised from the spot, to prevent a frantic finish.
The Poland international, recalled because of an injury to Manuel Almunia, also made a number of other good saves and earned the accolades from his boss.
“Fabianski had a good game, we have seen the player tonight who we see in training. He had a faultless game,” Wenger said.
“I know it is in him. He got it out in the game tonight and hopefully that will give him the belief and confidence he needs.
“I am confident he will come out as a great ‘keeper, I have always said that.
“We have to keep confidence in him and he needs to gain experience from games like this.”
Arsenal’s win on the back of the 6-0 thrashing of Braga means they now top Group H on goal difference, with Shakhtar Donetsk also making it two wins out of two with a 3-0 win in Portugal.
Attention for the Gunners now turns to a top-of-the-table clash with Chelsea on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, and Wenger believes an immediate recovery from the disappointment of the home defeat to the Baggies has restored confidence to the players as they look to close the gap on the league leaders.
“For us it was important to win straight away after a big disappointment against West Brom,” Wenger added.
“It puts us in a good position confidence-wise, Sunday is a big, big game for us.
“I believe we will go there with a desire to do extremely well.”
Despite Fabianksi’s performance against the Serbians on Tuesday night, Wenger has refused to confirm that the 25-year-old will start against Chelsea (8/11 favourites in the match betting) – who ended their two-match losing streak with a 2-0 win over Marseille.
The French tactician, who did intimate that captain Cesc Fabregas may return, said of the goalkeeping situation: “At the moment Almunia is injured, we will have to see how his injury goes but at the moment it is too early to say.”
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