Adrian Durham heaped praise on West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski ahead of the Hammers facing Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Manuel Pellegrini confirmed on Thursday that the Hammers’ first-choice shot-stopper was set for a spell on the sidelines and that the club’s medical staff were deciding if he currently needed surgery after picking up an injury against Bournemouth.
“About Lukasz, the medical staff will decide probably today or tomorrow if he will have surgery on his muscle, or if he will recover without surgery,” said the Hammers manager, as quoted by West Ham’s official website.
“I think in both cases less than three months will be long enough for Lukasz to recover.”
Durham claimed that Fabianski’s injury was a big big blow to the Hammers as he was one of the better goalkeepers in the Premier League before stating that he didn’t think some people saw the keeper’s success coming when he was at Arsenal.
“It’s a big big blow because Fabianski is one of the better goalkeepers in the league,” said Durham on talkSPORT (17:44, Friday, October 4th).
“I don’t think we all saw this coming at Arsenal, he has really made a reputation for himself.”
OPINION
Sometimes Durham is clearly trying to get a reaction from his listeners on talkSPORT in order to get them to phone in, so his opinions can be questionable, but his remarks on Fabianski are easy to agree with. Firstly the Hammers losing the 34-year-old to injury is going to be a big blow, and West Ham fans can only hope that his absence doesn’t prove costly. Fabianski currently sits top of the Premier League’s clean sheet chart, as per the Premier League’s official website, alongside Crystal Palace’s Vicente Guaita and Manchester City’s Ederson, so it’s easy to suggest the form of the Hammers’ shot-stopper is connected to West Ham sitting fifth in the league ahead of Saturday’s clash, which in turn proves that losing him to injury is a big blow. Secondly, Durham is probably right to suggest no one saw Fabianski’s success coming due to his spell at Arsenal. When the 34-year-old was at the London club, he conceded 86 goals in 78 outings (Source: Transfermarkt) and was rudely nicknamed ‘Flapianski’ (Source: Daily Mail) due to how he struggled to deal with crosses being whipped into the box. So when you consider that, who would have believed that years later he’d be one of the best keepers in the Premier League while playing for the Hammers.
