Petr Cech says he’s not expecting to play in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City even though he’s Arsene Wenger’s first choice keeper.
The 35-year-old is likely to watch Sunday’s match from the Wembley stands with David Ospina expected to start and Matt Macey likely to provide cover on the bench.
Given he’s not played a single minute of the competition so far, Cech – who is first choice for Premier League games – maintains he’s fine with missing a second cup final in two seasons.
“At the start it was clear that it was going to be like that,” he told Sky Sports.
“I will be there with the team supporting but I don’t expect to play. It is always hard to watch any game from the bench or even from the stand if you are not selected.
“As a player, you always want to be involved. But obviously you are in a professional club where there are 25 top players and the manager always makes his choices for the game and you need to accept that.”
Ospina obviously earned himself some goodwill from the terraces after saving a penalty against Ostersund last week – the first time we’ve done that since the Herbert Chapman era. Hopefully, the Colombian will come through the return leg on Thursday with his confidence intact.
I don’t get it to be honest. It’s a chance to win a trophy. Arsene will pick his strongest outfield players so why not his strongest keeper? It nearly cost us in FA cup final. (though thankfully Arsene got pretty much everything else right that day so if he picks Ospina & does the same again with everything else I will live with that)
Ospina took us up to the final to not be good enough? Plus in case it ends up with PK, Ospina seems a better choice.
Cech is a better keeper. For me, that’s all that counts. It might be tough on Ospina but top level sport is tough.
All that counts? For me, everything pales in comparison with Shortsgate.
With all due respect to Cech, I think Ospina is the better keeper. He is more agile. The only reason we don’t know that is because Cech is preferred due to his Premier League experience and record. I probably should not bring this up but it is the same way I feel Eboue was way better than Sagna.
You lost me at the eboue bit… good player with loads of potential, but lacked the discipline to tie sagna’s laces.
Sauna was splendid, really consistent. Eboue was a clown, an entertaining clown but still a clown.
Personally I prefer a steam bath.
How about a steam bath with a clown?
The only thing Eboue ever had in his locker was to make a good joke here and there..
There could be a case to be made that on current form, Ospina is the best keeper.
what do you mean when you said strong team ? Are you not convinced since you have been watching Cech with many errors he made that he wont make us win anything to arsenal ? That Opsina fans do not like him made us won FA CUP and now we are at the final for this because of him. I rather have Ospina instead of Cech.
Get him playing, he is our best.
We need players like Jack and Mkhitaryan to dribble and put their CB’s and fullbacks under pressure while Auba and Ozil work the spaces. City are very good at closing players down if we do sideways passing but they are vulnerable to direct and unpredictable technical dribbling.
Hoping for a 4-2-3-1 with Ozil as 10, Mkhi on the right, Iwobi on the left, Auba through the middle and Jack as the offensive CM.
Iwobi, Mkhi and Jack should dribble non-stop and break their structure when we have the ball. We should force them to make fouls. An early yellow card to one of their players could be the key in the final.
ir maybe a red
Mhkitaryan is cup-tied isn’t he?
Woah. Didn’t know that Mkhi is cup tied. Is Ramsey fit?
I think mkhitaryan is cup tied for this game but we have to play with wilshere and ramsey
I don’t think Mhki is eligible since he played for ManU?
Cech at 25 was a better keeper than Ospina. At 35, he’s on par with him. Don’t really care who starts.
Well, Fabianski won the FA Cup on his last appearance for us (adding a moment or two of excitement–uh, anxiety) right at the end.
I want a compilation video of Arsenal keepers doing crazy things off their line.
Ospina’s advantage over Cech is quick movement; his disadvantage is on high crosses. The way Man City play, it’s not completely crazy to think he might be the better choice, apart from his being “the Europa and Cup keeper”). Not saying he is–just that there is some basis for making this decision.
I get the speed thing given the way City play….but there are other disadvantages too though that I can’t ignore : Cech’s basic handling is better, he’s better at not just making saves but pushing rebounds out of the danger zone & he doesn’t utterly panic at every set piece, thus inducing that panic is all his defenders too. (In 40 years watching Arsenal I’ve never seen a less composed keeper on corners than Ospina, he seems utterly lost on what he’s supposed to do or where he should stand)
Maybe in addition to having a cup keeper we could make Wenger the cup manager.
Absolutely no probs with Ospina starting but think Cech should be on the bench.
At least he’ll have had 2 games under his belt and will be sharp by the time the final rolls around. He’s by no means a bad keeper but there’s a tendency to vilify him for any mistake he makes. I back him to contribute to another trophy for us!
I think there’s a bigger tendency to big him up way beyond his abilities any time he plays a decent game….different perspective I guess.
Bigging up Ospina? Do tell. I see no pattern of people hyping Ospina. Do you consider “by no means a bad keeper” as an instance of unrestrained praise?
Ah, litotes.
Its a global problem. Someone does good, they get barely recognised, they do bad and boom its open slather from people with nothing better to do with thier lives.
Athletes, high profile celebs and ya average joes like police.. they make 1 mistake and the amount of criticism and negativity they cop is phenominal. Do loads of good, barely get recognised for it.
I agree with you Auxdrexler but you can’t see (or won’t see) that the over praising (& may be it’s just reactionary to defend people) is just as bad.
Mayor McCheese – I have seen people agreeing with Arsene calling Ospina top, top class. I have seen people say he is easily the best no.2 in the league & that he would be no.1 at amy club outside the top 6. These have been said countless times on here despite being miles off the truth.
Countless times? Evidence please. I come here every day. Never seen it.
Cheers.
I’m glad you think I have the time to trawl back & find them. Though to be fair I have posted a lot the last day or so, being off work ill. There is loads of those comments but if you disagree, fair enough.
You were talking about perspective right? could it be that you also have a perspective towards ospina? a biased negative one?
I don’t think he’s a good keeper. Why does that have to be bias, it’s just my opinion.
The good thing about Ospina is that he is unpredictable, one game in he can play shit and the other he can exceed Old Cech ability.
Ospina deserved starting anyway, win or lose, it will probably be his last season
cant lie, at this stage I feel more comfortable with Ospina in goal. Cech makes a lot of unforced mistakes and lately it has looked like the defence aren’t fully confident with him behind them