According to various reports (Mirror, Mail, Telegraph), Petr Cech will miss a month of action as a result of the calf injury picked up at West Bromwich Albion last weekend.
The 34-year-old was substituted on 38 minutes after breaking down with the problem and could miss up to five matches bookended by Premier League and FA Cup showdowns with Manchester City, and games with West Ham, Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough.
On Sunday, Cech told press in his homeland that Arsenal’s players were struggling to replicate their training ground preparations on the pitch and criticised the squad for not hitting their potential.
David Ospina, whose gaff led to West Brom’s second goal on Saturday, looks set to continue in goal. That’s assuming he doesn’t get injured on international duty with Colombia who face Bolivia at home and then travel to Ecuador in six days time.
Emiliano Martinez will likely be on bench.
And the good news just keeps coming in……*weeps to himself*
Where’s that “this is fine” meme of the cartoon dog surrounded by fire when you need it?
Champions league football next season seems to get further away with each passing day, if nothing else the goalkeeping situation should expose Ospina for the clown he is and finally put paid to the ludicrous suggestions that he is good enough to be number one at a Premiership club.
I don’t think it’s fair to call Ospina a clown. I think he’s a good backup goalkeeper.
The whole team needs to defend properly.
With Sanchez and Ozil looking to leave the club in the summer we’re going to need another 5 or 6 players if we want to compete for the league.
Maybe we need to finish out of the top five in order for the board to realise that!
But what if the board say the team finished 2nd last season and we spent £90m spend on Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez, so you can’t have anymore money?
We are now reaping the reward for chronic underinvestment. Ospina is ok, but only that. He is also too short as are most of the team. The money spent last summer was a planned purchase (xhaka) and two panic buys (mustafi and Perez) plus Holding). We need taller players to compete in this physical league but mostly players with some passion for winning like the invincibles. If anyone thinks that a manager who had to hum and ha about buying a CB replacement when two were out injured will suddenly spend like a drunken sailor, they are deluding themselves. Also… Read more »
Or maybe a run of games will allow Ospina to get in a rhythm and actually perform at a higher level than we’ve seen from him much of this year. I’m not about to argue he’s been any good lately, but the way he’s been used is likely to create a whole lot of rust, especially after Champions League group play concluded.
Lot of fans wanted the boss to drop Cech in favour of Ospina after certain games, now Ospina is called a clown. Lot of fans criticized Wenger for not using Xhaka earlier in the season, now Xhaka is called shit. Lot of fans used to praise how many tackles and interceptions Coquelin made during games, now he doesn’t have Arsenal or even PL quality.
And there we are, in a nutshell.
Purple patch or a brown one.
Fuck man, way to get behind your team!
Ospina’s a quality international keeper whose made a couple of blunders as all keepers do, even the very best. Especially given he’s used so sporadically and not had a run of games…
Ospina’s not the clown here.
Indeed ! Ospina is a very good keeper. It’s the ten in front of him where the problem lies.
Fuck.
“Chechmate” , worst season in last 20+ years.
We just need Bellerin to say he wants a Summer move now…
Wenger has been in the system long enough to know which player suite the league. Saying Ospina is a good player and rated highly in his country do not mean if he is not suited for the league.
And the same goes for players good in training and bad on the pitch. Should be firing players failing to deliver on match day consistently. For me Perez looks like a guy who does more on a match day.
at least he wont be cracking jokes on the bench when we are getting our asses whipped.
I’m bored of this this season now.
He’s been a bit of a steaming pile of garbage this season, but I’m not exactly sure that Ospina fills me with any more confidence whatsoever
Total disrespect and totally wrong. Cech has saved us on numerous occasions and is still one of the best in the league.
Let’s look for the positives… at least if we concede a penalty, it isn’t a guaranteed goal against us.
Does anyone know his penalty stats. Im sure he is a chavski agent still on Roman Sonovabitch’s payroll.
Although I don’t think Ospina is as good as Cech or Szczesny or even Fabianski, the abuse he is getting is largely unwarranted. He has proven to be an adequate backup keeper and has made some great saves on several occasions. I don’t believe it is fair to lay so much blame at his feet – we should all approach the situation with some perspective.
To me that sounds fair but he has had some very worrying moments lately. His decision making with coming out for it has been way off. I hope he calms that down a bit and I for one will feel better. Also, our defenders need to help him out more with opposition players blocking and fouling him on set pieces. Make THEM uncomfortable, don’t just let them do it to Ospina. If Ramsey’s not going to track might as well tell him to get to work on anyone doing that. And PUT ONE OF OUR TALLER HEADBALL-WINNERS ON THE FUCKING… Read more »
But here’s the thing Maniac…is it approaching the situation with perspective to call him great or world class or top quality ? He is none of those things, in the same way that he is not a clown.
He’s a decent keeper but no more than that. Good enough to be Arsenal’s no.1 ? Not even close imo.
Saying ridiculously positive things can be just as unwarranted as saying overly negative things…….and one nearly always leads to the other. People’s reaction to nonsense is usually more nonsense.
Get Martinez in. He cant do any worse surely. He is no midget. Cechs past it and wears glasses ffs.
Just bring back Szczesny next year and let him be #1, and Cech can tutor him for whatever he may need to add to his game. I’ve always disliked Ospina in goal for certain reasons and have been wanting to make Szczesny #1. Think it will be a huge mistake to leave him at Roma.
I also rate szcz better than Ospina if for height and instinct. He’s more decisive off the line and his physical advantage allows him to be more confident on such decisions as well. Ospina is amazing to compete at his height, that’s a fact, but I think it is a real physical barrier, unfortunately. Szcz’s range is great and he’s also a great reaction stopper–he’s learned more discipline and distribution at Roma, a much more defensively disciplined league, and I think he should come back and do some real work at home.
Hopefully Ospina gets a bit of rhythm because he’s been a bit out of form lately but that’s of course due to the lack of games, also he’s been unlucky many times being exposed by a terrible defensive display in the defense and midfield. The abuse he’s been receiving from some fans is unfair, I understand the anger of the fans with the situation with the manager, the board and the team because I am angry too but the least we can do now is to support them, they are all what we have now.