There had been a fair few rumours surrounding Arsenal’s goalkeepers this summer, about who would stay and who would leave. Although there are a few certainties about those staying and those leaving, David Ospina is one player who has had his future cast in doubt.
Ospina played second fiddle to Petr Cech last season and whilst he played a number of games in the cup competitions, his only real run in the Premier League came in Petr Cech’s absence. It led Ospina to supposedly consider his future at the club and he was even linked with a £4 million move to Turkish side Fenerbahce. However it seems as if his future has been cleared up now as the Colombian is adamant his wants to remain at the club and fight for his place.
Speaking whilst on pre-season, Ospina showed his willingness to compete for the number one spot by saying: “I have a contract with Arsenal, I’m happy with the team. We are fighting for the top of the league.
“Now we have two weeks until we start the season. These friendlies serve us very well.”
Although I think he will have little luck in displacing Petr Cech anytime soon, it seems as if he has beaten Wojciech Szczesny and co into being the club’s number two. It’s also likely that he will remain above the likes of Martinez, Macey and Huddart.
Ospina will be hoping that he can at least challenge Cech to a run in the Premier League, however in reality I think it’ll be another year of cup competitions for the Colombian. Ospina has proven on occasion to be a fantastic goalkeeper, especially when it comes to playing with his international side. However at Arsenal he has a knack of making easy mistakes and I think his inconsistencies will be what stops him from becoming Arsenal’s number one.
Elsewhere Wojciech Szczesny continues to be linked with a move away having not featured in Arsenal’s pre season tour. Szczesny has been linked with a move to Roma all summer after spending last season on loan with the Italian side. At the moment however the Polish international goalkeeper is being linked with a move that will conduct a transfer fee of £13 million plus!
Will Ospina be able to displace Cech in good time?
By AH
Szczesny move has a buy option for Roma of €15 mil at the end of the loan. That is different than getting paid €15 mil now. Good to see Ospina stay.
Weird that Szczesny has a pricetag of €15m, but Ospina is only valued at £4m.
Well when Cech retires, hopefully we will still have Ospina and we can turn our attention to Jack Butland who looks like the future England #1 (if he’s not already)
OT.. I noticed when most of you guys are suggesting possible lineups you keep putting xhaka as cdm and pairing him with someone else.
For me coquelin should remain the primary cdm and paired with xhaka to provide extra security without compromising technical superiority in midfield, with xhaka you we won’t miss cazorla technical, passing and retention ability plus he’ll add more bite and physicality.
It will be the reincarnation of the Gilberto and viera axis.
Disagree. Cazorla’s technical ability is fantastic. Comfortably the best at the club. Xhaka’ a good passer, but doesn’t match up to Santi. Xhaka plays in a deeper position than Cazorla does – he usually stays just ahead of the centre circle when we’re attacking, whereas Cazorla normally pushes up to the edge of the box. So with a Xhaka Coquelin partnership, we’d lack offence.
I’m pretty sure Xhaka and Ramsey will be our midfield pairing. Reincarnation of the Ramsey Arteta partnership that made Ramsey thrive a couple seasons back, but with more of a physical and defensive presence in Xhaka compared with Arteta.
Have to disagree as well. Coquelin is strictly defensive so with him we need the best, technically gifted CM which would be Cazorla. Xhaka can defend but also is a offensive, long ball distributing midfielder so if we place him with Coquelin, I think we will be less offensive as unit.
So I would suggest if Santi is injured:
Xhaka – Ramsey or Coquelin – El Neny.
Playing xhaka as a pure defensive midfielder is limiting his ability and it’s the same asking santi to play the box to box role.
I see santi as a pure #10 like ozil and should be alternating that role with him, while xhaka, el neny and a very disciplined ramsey should share responsibility in cm with coquelin as cdm.
Against much weaker opposition or games that we are chasing xhaka can be stationed at the base of our midfield
Nah I mean we should utilize Xhaka as B2B midfielder and the defensive responsibilities could be shared between Xhaka and Ramsey both. This though, as you said, would require a very disciplined Ramsey..
Xhaka can’t be all defensive, agree on that. His long shooting and distribution would be wasted..
I would have xhaka and coquelin and ramsy in the midfield have Ozil up in front of them with sanches the wide player and OG 12 in front of them My stubborn need for a good striker some skillful dude with pace a two footed striker we at Arsenal have got really skillful midfielder that can play out wide all what we need is a skillful striker a skillful striker that can adopt to any tactical maneuvers shape with the players we got we can run riot but we need to use our resources well and I believe that will require from MR wenger to sign a full dimensional striker one that can run use his head and both feet
It’s funny how Ospina has done a complete U-turn on his previous statements since Turkey has become unstable, recently.
Don’t me get wrong, I’m glad that his staying but whilst he was on international dutie, he was telling close friends and family that he wanted to move to Turkey and since no other clubs have been interested in him, apart from those turkish clubs, his changed his tune! ? good luck to him, he will get his chance as Cech isn’t no spring chicken and bound to pick up an injury or two throughout the season.
Fatboy, how do you know what he said to close friends and family, are you one of them? Or are you relying on media reports which we all know are 95% made up.
He was a bit of a whinger
Thought of himself as a striker and not a right winger
He went back on what he said
His shots would often end up in row Z
But he always got a new contract and a pay rise because he was a favorite of Wenger
Ospina has a bad game against olympiacos, along with most other arsenal players on the pitch and it is rammed down his throat and seemingly never forgotten.
Cech has a bad game against west ham, plus gets beaten twice to low shots at his near post (near the end of the season). This is soon forgotten.
Ospina played for about half the games in PL for us in 2014/15. His stats for goals conceded per 90 minutes played was 0.61. That is the equivalent of 23 goals in a whole season. For every two goals ospina conceded, the likes of hart, de gea and courtois conceded three. All his other stats like clean sheets, saves per goal conceded etc were better. Arsene wenger said that ospina had the best stat in PL and he was correct and they were better by a long long way. I do not see a “knack of making easy mistakes and inconsistencies” and the stats show the complete opposite.
Cech stats in 2015/16 in PL for goals conceded per 90 minutes played is 0.91. That is good but again for every two gosls ospina conceded in PL in 2014/15, cech conceded three in PL 2015/16.
I am delighted that ospina is staying, he is our most underrated player.
As for his performances for columbia in WC and two copa americas, they have been awesome and directly influenced how well columbia did in these competitions.
442 will suit us best right now, with the midfield 4 playing as a diamond.
For me that gets most of our top players on the pitch.
Cech
Bellerin Gabriel Koscielny Monreal
Xhaka
Ramsey cazorla
Ozil
Giroud Alexis
2nd x1
Ospina
Debuchy chambers holding gibbs
Coquelin
Wilshire elneny
Chamberlain
Walcott campbell
Squad
Martinez, jenkinson, Mertesacker, Bielik, zelalem, iwobi, gnabry, Welbeck, akpom
Obviously left the 3 long term injured in the squad places but I expect that jenkinson. Mertesacker and Welbeck could replace Debuchy chambers and walcott or campbell in the 2nd x1. Whilst iwobi is also pushing wilshire or chamberlain for a place in the 2nd x1.
Would still love it if we signed mustafi or another top cb. And we desperately need a better striker. But to be honest we could upgrade on so many players in other positions too, especially in the 2nd x1.