Wojciech Szczesny – seemingly channelling his inner Jens Lehmann – says he won’t feel bad condemning David Ospina to life on the bench at the Emirates stressing the Gunners new keeper is not his friend.
Claiming his relationship with the Colombian is different to that which he had with recently departed compatriot Lukasz Fabianski, the Pole admitted he has to be at the top of his gameif he’s to retain his status as Arsenal’s number 1.
“I feel confident of being No1 but I know I can’t let myself play a few bad games,” he told Polish press ahead of his country’s Euro 2016 qualifier with Gibraltar.
“I know Ospina’s ambitions don’t end at sitting on the bench and clapping his hands while watching me play.
“He is a nice guy. In a sporting sense, he is a suitable player at a suitable club. But it’s easier for me just in one aspect: I do not feel sorry for him. I do not think ‘he’s my friend’ as I thought about Fabian [Fabianski]. I was convinced Lukasz deserved to play but not at my expense.”
Last season Szczesny won the Premier League’s Golden Glove award for keeping more clean sheets than any other keeper in the league. He’s started this season with two in the Champions league but has conceded in each of the Gunners opening three domestic fixtures.
Explaining that the quality of strikers available to clubs up and down the country, he joked that repeating the feat could be difficult.
“When I look at the strikers in the Premier League I wonder when the first one [clean sheet] will be. After three games it wasn’t possible. The power of our opponents is amazing, this season everything can happen.”
Of the award itself, he added. “The trophy is heavy, it’s five or six pounds. I was expecting an actual golden glove but it’s more of a hand flying through the air to save the ball. I’ve got it at home where it stands all shiny, so when I have a bad day I just look at it and immediately feel better.”
Szczesny also cast his eye over Arsenal’s upcoming Champions League challenge claiming the group, featuring Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray and Anderlecht, is not the most intimidating.
“It’s not the easiest group, but nor is it the strongest. We have a real chance of progressing and that’s key. We’ve got Dortmund for the third time in four years, it’s like we’re drawn together like magnets. The atmosphere at their ground is in the top three I’ve ever experienced.
“They don’t have Robert Lewandowski anymore though…and quite frankly, I don’t like playing against him. He’s gone to Bayern Munich and they’ll only benefit from having him. There’s not a team in the world he wouldn’t improve.”
no fooling around then Wojiech
“But when I have a bad day I look at the Golden Glove award and feel better straight away.”
Loved this quote, some people didn’t understand the importance of an individual trophy last year, but now you can see how it can help boost someone’s morale and performance.
My thoughts exactly!
sounds like the competition is keeping him nicely focused
good
Badass! Love his attitude to the core.
I dont like us playing against Lewandowski either!!
Lets hope we avoid playing Bayern this season, but deep down i feel its inevitable 🙁
Yeah…Magnets!
I imagine we’ll meet them in the final.
great attitude
Never heard any other player discussing his idea of how a trophy should look like. This chap is hilarious.
i hope he can back that talk because I’m sure Ospina will want to prove himself when given a chance
You know he built my house?
Ah here was I thinking, finally, a whole load of comments without a single thumbs down, why oh why, would you spoil my fun. it’s liking seeing world class players linked with Arsenal and then you come around and say we’re linked to Downing….
I think I may have issues
He built your house and fuck your girlfriend!
He shared the award with Cech blogs…
Only one plays for Arsenal, ergo he won it.
Wtf are you doing on here, “Sparky”??!!
I need a break from this managers meeting. Ferguson is doing my nut in.
You have nut?
Szczesny has built up some omf lol
Ospina will take over as number 1 and Szczesny will play cup games 🙂
Cant wait for Ospina to take over ,that way SzCz can do what he does best, blogging
I envisage the complete opposite due to his improvements over the last few seasons, the fact he’s #1 now and Ospina is new and needs to settle in. Unless Szczesny has a catastrophic downturn in form, I can see him staying focused as he has a better ‘keeper then Fabianski trying to get into the first team.
You just have to love the guy
and that ladies and gentleman…is tbe attitude of a legend and a gunner
I was hoping the lack of thumb downs would continue but alas!
Im not a fan of szcz. I think he has won the fans over by slagging spurs . Any bad performance is met with a player review of.. there was nothing he could do about the goal.
I hope ospina gets a fair crack at the job.
my best man win
I think he won over fans with his ‘Golden Glove’ winning performances, along with his other performances.
There’s also a reason he has been praised by both David Seaman and Jens Lehmann as Arsenal’s best ‘keeper in years as I’m sure being goalkeepers themselves, they are far better placed to know what they’re talking about.
And after everything, he still had a praise for his pal Lewandowski, very classy professional and individual.
Szczesny is a traditional goalkeeper, while Ospina is of the acrobatic persuasion. So will be very interesting to follow the competition not only between the two keepers, but also between two very different schools of goalkeeping.
I just hope our goalkeeper coaches dont try to change Ospinas way of playing to be more traditional like Szczesny.
I don’t think Szcz is a “traditional keeper” at all.
He’s closer to being part of the new breed of athletic sweeper – keepers. e.g. Neuer
This guy was our most improved player last year, behind the Welsh Jesus of course. Love his attitude. A lot of people criticized him over the tennis scores we got last season but frankly, he was the reason why those games where tennis scores and not cricket scores. Expecting a big year from him. There isn’t as much pressure heaped on him as it is on Ramsey right now and so I expect him to continue thriving.
Remember this interview if the day comes that Ospina takes the number 1 shirt from you. I like the bravado but those are fighting words
I actually really liked that “I like the guy but he’s not my friend” comment. In any work place there’s always that competition. At the end of the day if there’s one job and you’re fighting with someone to get it, nice guys finish last. I respect his stance on Ospina and I find it refreshing that he is so honest about it. I work with 2 of my close friends from high school but when there was a chance for a promotion it was war. In a good sense.
I won by the way 😀
Apparently they misquoted him? He put up a facebook status saying that he only said the parts about Fabianski, and that the press came up with the Ospina ‘twist’
Posted on Facebook 12 minutes ago:
“English press need to stop looking for a story when there isn’t one. I said I used to feel sorry for Lukasz Fabianski because he was my good friend and he deserved to play first team football. Little bit different then saying “Ospina isn’t my friend and I don’t feel sorry for him”, don’t you think? With social media these days your bull…t stories will get killed straight away.”
I love this guy more and more every day!
That’s the spirit!
Think Ospina will get his chance in the cups.
Damn I just think how better it would look if we never conceded as much goals in our embarrassing thrashings from city, Liverpool, and Chelsea. Definitely something to get better on.
I think he should wait until Ospina is actually on the bench. The last time I checked, he has only benched Martinez. Whoever keeps must merit the shirt. Good thing is that we have that department covered for many years to come.
Here comes the competition. Wait for ospina to taste premir league and then’ll judge both of u.
Think you can took err jawb, ospina?
Omg I miss Almunia ;]
7days and still no word from Wenger on Welbeck capture. STRANGE