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Arsenal Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia: I'm Back To My Best
Spaniard back at 100 per cent after rough patch…
08-Dec-2009 11:26:15 PM
Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia is beginning to feel like he's back to his best, after the first part of his season was disrupted by illness and bereavement.
The Spaniard suffered a debilitating chest infection in the opening weeks of the season which took him some time to recover from.
The tragic death of a relative also meant that the keeper was not feeling at his best emotionally, but since his return to the side at the end of August, Almunia feels that things are beginning to click.
"Since coming back I have been feeling good," he told the Gunners' Official Matchday Programme.
"I didn't feel so well at the start of the season, and I had some bad things around me. As a result I didn't start the season so well.
"But I feel well now back on the pitch and I'm feeling 100 per cent in my mind and body. I have sorted everything out in my body and my life, and I'm ready to help my team-mates.
"It was very hard. Sometimes during your career you don't feel at your best. But with good training, good help, and being professional I was sure I would come back.
"People around me, my wife, everyone was very supportive. Everybody has bad moments, and that was a bad period for me, but it's in the past now."
Vito Mannone and Lukasz Fabianksi stepped in between the sticks during Almunia's absence.
The Spaniard welcomes the competition for places at the Emirates, and insists that hard work is the key to any success he enjoys.
"It's always tough competition. Not because there are two, three or four goalkeepers next to me in training every day, but because I impose on myself an obligation to work hard," he affirmed.
"If I was the only goalkeeper at the club, I would have the same attitude.
"The biggest pressure I have is always from myself, and after a game when I'm not happy with myself, I am rude to myself – I am my own worst critic."
Zack Wilson, Goal.com UK
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