Arsenal: Arsene Wenger Confident Enough to Loan Manuel Almunia

Apparently manager Arsene Wenger is feeling pretty good about his Arsenal side, or at least good enough to loan away keeper Manuel Almunia to West Ham.

Almunia has been sliding down Wenger's list of players that he has confidence in, so it's not a shocking move per se, but it does show some brass from the Gunners' brass.

Wenger is feeling good about the way his team is playing. Sure, they haven't been exceptional and they have definitely shown a lot of mistakes, but their core of veteran players and young skill players is really starting to mesh together to produce a dangerous side.

Dangerous enough to let a keeper go, which is always a risky move in this business. ESPNsoccernet reports more on the loan:

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Almunia, 34, has arrived to cover for current West Ham No. 1 Robert Green, who faces around six weeks out with a knee cartilage injury.

Hammers boss Sam Allardyce told West Ham TV: 'We've been hot on the phone and secured an excellent signing in the short-term in Manuel Almunia from Arsenal. It's a big "thank you" again to Arsene Wenger and Arsenal for allowing us to get such a high-class and experienced goalkeeper to come in and fill-in for Robert for the time being.

'I think he hasn't had as many games at Arsenal as he would have liked so he wants to play first-team football at the end of the day.

'We hope that huge amount of experience he has had at Arsenal and the football he has played on a regular basis will stand us in good stead here at West Ham and more and more clean sheets will come from his presence in goal. That will obviously help us to secure more victories while Robert is out.'

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Good keepers just don't grow on trees, so hopefully this loan won't come back to bite Wenger if an injury were to present itself.

It's a good sign for Arsenal fans that Wenger is open to moving some of his less used players around, though.

It points to confidence.

He is confident in the players that he assigns to the pitch every week. He is confident that they will do their jobs and that he won't regret trusting them.

This is a team that is slowly but surely coming together, and you can tell Wenger is starting to feel it.