After being caught in Pamplona stampede nothing fazes Arsenal star Almunia

Being the charming, confident chap that he is, Arsenal's goalkeeper responds with a wry smile to the obvious reference to a certain team-mate who has questioned his ability to cope with the pressure and focuses instead on all that is good about his life.

He focuses on having wrestled the goalkeeping jersey from Lehmann's grasp. That he has now secured his place in a side that sit at the summit of the Barclays Premier League as well as in the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League.

He is focused on tomorrow's game against Chelsea and the things he considers even more important than that. Like his wife, Ana, and his family.

Like donating a day's pay to charity, as all Arsenal's players will do tomorrow in support of the TreeHouse school for children with autism in north London.

And pressure? Don't talk to Almunia about pressure. Pressure, he says, is running the streets of Pamplona with a raging bull parked up your backside. "I'm from Pamplona," he says. "And I took part in La Corrida a few times when I was a teenager. When you have a crazy mind, at 15 or 16, you do crazy things."

He will never forget the last run he made, just as he will never forget the name of the American killed that day. "Matthew Pether Tassio," he says. "It was July 11. I forget the year. But I had just got home, turned on the TV and seen it on the news that this guy was fighting for his life. I just felt my body just go, oh, all weak. I never touched a bull. I always kept a few metres in front and you can't run much more than about 50 metres because they are so quick. But it's a very scary experience, with everyone screaming and pushing. It's mad. Completely mad."

Goalkeepers, he admits, are completely mad. "Crazy," he says. "They do have a reputation for being, well, a bit different. Maybe because we get so many kicks in the head!

"But then, seriously, there is more pressure as a goalkeeper. You are the only one, and there is only one place on the pitch you can play.

"It can get very lonely. I have felt alone many times, when you have the bad moments. In the good moments the closest people are with you, if you know what I mean. But no one is with you when things go wrong. At a club like Arsenal, all eyes are on you but no one is with you."

Even so, he accepts the responsibility. Not only that. He wants the responsibility. "I accept the pressure," he says. "If you don't accept it you are lost, because as a goalkeeper I would say 60 per cent of a performance is in the mind."

It is Friday afternoon and his mind is clear. The chance to meet Chelsea, after what has been the first blip of an otherwise near-perfect season, in little more than 48 hours is something he relishes.

A chance to bounce back after that draw at Newcastle and the defeat that followed at Middlesbrough.

"I think it is important to get the balance right," he says. "I enjoy life with my wife. I consider other things more important. But all I think about now is playing against Chelsea and I am looking forward to it.

"Since coming to Arsenal I have had to be patient. I've have spent my time on the bench, behind a goalkeeper with European experience who plays in the national team, and it has not always been easy. But when you get your chance, you have to believe you can take it and that is what I have done."

So what about Lehmann? What about the recent criticism he appears to have received from Arsenal's other goalkeeper. Lehmann, according to reports in the German newspapers, has said his Spanish rival is not a match winner and not someone who can handle the pressure.

Not someone, the considerably less affable Lehmann seems to think, Arsene Wenger should be selecting ahead of him.

Almunia's response is both calm and considered. "If you want to write about me and Lehmann you will have to retire because there's not much to write about," he says with a degree of insouciance. "It's very simple. I try to keep the respect about him. I don't know if he respects me but I don't want to know. I try not to read stupid things about me. My mind is focused only on the important things."

He has always been a goalkeeper, from the moment his Uncle Juan bought him the kit, complete with gloves, when he was six. "As a child I suffered from asthma," he says. "I wanted to be a striker. I wanted the goals, the fame. But my father (also Manuel) and the doctor told me it was not safe for me to run around.

"My father then asked my uncle to buy be a kit, and I wore it the first time I went to train with my local team I put it on. I remember all the kids standing there, all wanting to play up front or whatever, the way kids do, and the coach asks who's going to be in goal. Then he spots me and says, perfect, you can go. That was it. I've been in goal ever since."

It is more than three years since the 30-year-old arrived at Arsenal from Celta Vigo, and he is now less than 12 months away from being able to apply for British citizenship.

Having never represented Spain at any level, it will enable to play for England should Fabio Capello regard him as an alternative to the many error-prone English keepers.

Almunia appears keen. "I will have the possibility to become an English citizen," he says. "And I've always said I will not close any door, especially when I think how well my family has been treated here.

"To play for an international team is a great honour for anyone, and if I never get the opportunity to play for Spain I would not turn down the chance to play for someone else. Many players do that. Eduardo is a Brazilian but he is playing for Croatia. If one day I play for England I will be very thankful to the people of this country for giving me all the good things I have now."

For that reason, he has been watching developments at the FA with interest. "Nobody knows how it will work with Capello but he did a very good job at Real Madrid," he says. "Many people don't like Capello in Spain, mainly because of the football he plays. In Spain they like to play more attacking football, where as Capello is more defensive.

"But in one season there he won the title for the club and that's great, no matter how he won it, and I think his style would suit the English players."

As well as a certain Spaniard.