Arsene Wenger’s confirmation that David Ospina will start in goal tomorrow night for Arsenal has shocked absolutely nobody.
Despite newspaper reports feigning surprise that Petr Cech wouldn’t play, fans know that the Arsenal manager made a decision early in the season to play the Colombian in Europe.
It’s almost as if the papers created this story so they could fill column inches, despite Wenger saying back in September that his keepers would fulfill specific roles this season.
“We have the roles that the keepers know,” he said, confirming Cech as the Premier League and Ospina as the European keeper.
“It’s important to have clear roles when the season starts and when that changes I inform them. But they know what the roles of the season are.”
As did everyone else, but that didn’t stop some of the papers ignoring that in the build up to Wednesday night.
Speaking on Tuesday at his pre-game press conference, Wenger reiterated his stance and backed Ospina for the quality of his performances.
“I have nothing to hide there, it will be Ospina because of the quality of his performances,” he said.
“We are in the last 16 and finished top of the group. If you analyse his performances in every single game we are where we are because of his great performances.”
So, there you go. Man says he’s going to do something, and then does it. What a shocker.
Read today’s Arseblog which touches on some of these themes: Football and the shifting media landscape
OSPINAAAA…..
Got it wrong, it’s: Oooooospina!
Actually, it’s Ooooospinaaaa
It’ll be interesting to see if Ospina keeps his place in the first team for the foreseeable future if he was to put in a solid display tomorrow, or indeed if Wenger reverts back to Cech despite form. Either way a more stable performance by what’s in front of the keeper is necessary for a positive result.
Credit to arsene for keeping faith in both keepers. Personally, i agree with him…both are top top keepers and it is right that they both keep their places in both competitions. in terms of overall ability?, for me, at this moment, Cech is still a bit ahead, but then form is transient, plus Cech does have a better physical presence which is definitely an advantage in defending aerial attacks and/or set pieces. Ospina, however in my books have better reflexes and positioning.
Ospina is shorter, but so is Loris at Spuds, and both are good. I think quality-wise, Ospina is really good indeed.
There is too much focus here on his size and the fact that he does stop corners from behind the line as I hear blog say often… but to me, he could stop shots with his nose I wouldn’t care, just as long as he stops them.
I want Ospina to make a statement tonight really, I think he is the one for the future, but that is my own personal opinion.
Still would be nice to see him get some premier league games, just in case and to keep him sharp.lets hope he’s not to busy tomorrow night.
On another note
Just watching psg rip Barcelona a new one. Makes us coming out of the group stages on top quite a feat.
Now we need to make the most of this first away leg and bring something back to make the second game realy uncomfortable for them.
Yep. And that leads to some interesting conclusions.
PSG thrashed Farca 4-0. We finished two points ahead of PSG in our group, which obviously means we would have beat Farca at least 6-0.
The last time Farca met Bayern Munich they beat them by two goals on aggregate. Therefore, if Farca are two goals better than Bayern and we would have beat Farca 6-0 today, that obviously means we will win 8-0 over Bayern tomorrow.
You heard it here first.
Sorry I had to uovote that from 8 as the votes were standing at 8-2. And that’s a painful score
Watching what PSG are doing to Barca makes me convinced that Arsenal just need to believe to go very very far in this competition. Belief. It’s a small but at the same time massive ingredients.
Hit the nail on the head.
Belief is key.
We often don’t hit the ball with enough conviction in the final application after some good creative work to open up the opposition.
We need to really go for the jugular and belief we can score.
Particularly Ozil but also say Bellerin if he finds himself with an opening. Don’t over complicate thinngs but exhibit sufficient composure and don’t rush the shot either. Hit them like you mean it.
People don’t give us enough credit.
We played this same PSG team and beat them to top spot.
We have a weak mentality?
We played the same team that beat Liverpool 2 nil a couple of weeks ago.
Liverpool have a strong mentality? Klopp is a good man motivator?
OK….
Its almost like we deserve an elbow to the face.
I think we should bring the game to top teams like Bayern. Of course that means we need to learn to press as a team. But we sure won’t survive by just defending and counter-attacking in the first leg. This is Bayern. They will score if you give them the ball.
We are better than psg. We toped the group and have better players. Wenger is better than Emery. Barcelona was lucky we won our group or theyd be embaressed even more. Will knock psg again after we finish the job in Germany tonight.
Pound for pound, we are up against a very good team – GK : Neur VS Ospina (Advantage Bayern, Ospina is a good shot stopper but overall Neur) RB : Rafinho or Lahm VS Monreal (Fairly even, Lahm is older these days but still very experienced) LB : Alaba VS Bellerin (Advantage Alaba on experience but Bellerin’s pace) CB : Boateng VS Mustafi (Advantage Bayern. Boateng is a Cbackwhere Mustafi plays RB for Germany nominally and is only recently converted to role. Boateng height advantage too) CB : Hummels VS Koscielny (Even although again height advantage Hummels but Koscieony is… Read more »
Boateng is still injured. He won´t play tomorrow. Martinez will probably play CB and Thiago, if he’s fit again, will play CM.
I stopped after Alonso v Coquelin, pile of crap
What a load of shit.
When was the last time you warched football bro?
Bullshit….. Nowhere on earth or in hell is Coquelin anywhere near as close to Alonso’s quality. Your comment illustrates delusion from A to Z.
Lets first admit that they are the better team then we can look for effective ways of beating them, not the load of shit you have posted.
bayern will play martinez as centre back and tiago as cm.muller is off form , dont know if he will start
Wrong birthday party clown. We have advantage everywhere except Ospina. And of course Wenger has tons of exprience in this game and Championsleague.
“Despite newspaper reports feigning surprise that Petr Cech wouldn’t play, fans know that the Arsenal manager made a decision early in the season to play the Colombian in Europe.”
In other news tonight, Sky sources have told us that, contrary to popular belief, bears shit in the woods. We’ll be having an in depth discussion with someone who once saw a bear in a zoo later…..
Deserves his place for sure.
Bring back almunia….the only world class keeper we had since seaman…???
Wonder if Arsene says the same thing if, shock horro, Arsenal defy the critics and fanbase and make the CL final. Will he stick with Ospina or decide Cech’s experience is a better fit for the final.
Arsene has past history where the FA Cup goalie Fabianski played the final vs Hull as he had done all the cup matches.
Sif is madman. It is really difficult to understand why he acts this way. I don’t think that Ospina is worse than Cech, but it is definitely worse for the rest of 10 players. I mean cohesion. Why doesn’t Sif think of that? We are gonna play in Germany against big team that will most likely suppress our defense. Unfortunately this show is gonna be another big failure for our glorious manager.
I want Ospina to play, but honestly it’s kind of crazy that we go into all massive european games with a GK who only plays in these games every few weeks. There’s something to be said for match practice