The Arsenal goalkeeper syndrome...?

After watching the World Cup group stages, I got a feeling that international goalkeepers only need to get linked with Arsenal before playing badly.

Tonight's match saw Denmark's and Stoke City's Thomas Sørensen let in two Japanese free kicks, arguably because of bad positioning. Earlier, purported Arsenal targets like Robert Green, Hugo Lloris and Gianluigi Buffon have made high profile mistakes. Nigeria's Vincent Eneyama was linked after a great opening performance, but after the Arsenal link was made, he started to look shakier... Federico Marchetti didn't look too hot today, either.

Fulham's and Australia's Mark Schwarzer is reportedly close to signing for Arsenal (even though the deal has been reportedly near-concluded for a while now). During the World Cup, some of his errors have caught attention.

Not everything can be blamed on the ball. But not every "target" has looked stupid, either. World Cup keepers Sergio Romero, David James, Joe Hart, Maarten Stekelenburg, Manuel Neuer and Julio Cesar have yet to make mistakes like the ones highlighted above.

I guess the fact that they are ALL linked to Arsenal this summer tells us that no "Arsenal goalkeeper syndrome" is at work. Instead, with every goalie on the planet seemingly on his way to the Emirates, no wonder that a percentage of them make errors in the World Cup.