Going into the big game at Wembley, Arsene Wenger certainly has a lot of tough calls to make in regards to his team selection. One area of the pitch which is sure to give the Frenchman a headache is in goal. Does he stick with the new Cup-keeper Wojciech Szczesny or bring in the more assured David Ospina in his place?
For me, both custodians come with their pros and cons. Szczesny is more than capable of pulling off a world-class save but fails to do the simple things right. Ospina, on the other hand, has suffered a noticeable dip in form over the last couple of weeks but the biggest advantage with the Colombian is that he has a safe pair of hands. Quite frankly, the only error he’s ever made was last week against West Brom and we can forgive him for that since he may have well been reading a newspaper as Arsenal dominated a vast majority of the game.
My choice for the big game is Ospina. While it will be a big hit to Szczesny’s confidence, I believe that it is something that has to be done. An FA Cup final is a game in which you play your best team, and that most definitely includes your best goalkeeper. Considering the fact that the Pole has played around two games in the past five months, he is bound to be a bit rusty, prone to errors and he may as well attempt to do silly things like beat an on-rushing player, something I believe he has been lucky to get away with on so many occasions.
In addition, Ospina has also established a very good understanding with Mertesacker and Koscielny and the trio have a very good defensive record when played together. Looking at the importance of the game as building a good platform for next season, Wenger simply cannot afford to take any risks, especially in goal! Simply put, David Ospina must start!
Anurag
Let Szczesny keep.
Heard the news on the grapevine that Mystic Penguin is predicting a Villa FA Cup win? Lol! This Penguin is from Birmingham and I believe it is biased, besides I do not believe in this sort of superstitious dung! Come on Arsenal, go out there and prove this sort of mumbo jumbo wrong and win comfortably. Thank you..
Mystic Penguin my dishevelled ass. We are coming home with that trophy, and Penguins are going extinct.
I feel we are gonna make history on Saturday with an emphatic win against Villa. For once, Arsenal deserves to enjoy an easy final… Final Score: 4:1′
It wont be easy. Villa will park the bus as expected and hit us on counter strike and set pieces. You would think we have handled this with other mid table teams. But the difference here is Benteke. He is fast (counter attack), terrific in air (Set pieces) and in lethal form. So we need to be careful and exercise caution.
Two occasion in EPL made our defensive aware enough to deal with Benteke. It was it 3-0 and 5-0 for us, was it?
Ospins is better then Schez but in absolute terms he is not WC. Ospina makes good saves which are expected at that level. Schez used to make a mess of those too. I am not sure if Ospina can produce a performance which wins us the matches like De Gea and Lloris did many times this season.
1. World Class
1.5. Ospina
3. Schezny
I still believe we should sign a world class GK may be Petr Cech. And loan/sell Schezny.
As for Final i think Ospina should start. In the trophy match we need to have sharp GK. A rusty Schezny is the riskiest gamble.
Right now maybe but not on form. Sczchesny is like the keepers you mention, he can be impenetrable. Ospina does what he should but sczchensy can do the improbable and potential to be world class. Problems usually come when he gets too cocky.
I agree Ospina must
not be dropped…
He must be “replaced”
by Szcz 🙂
Same shit last final when everyone shouting sheez shld start ahead of fab…..
It wld be sheez last game for Arsenal…
Play Szczesny first half and Ospina second half
AW is very consistent. He tents to give time play for Shez. My choice is our safety hand, Oooooooooooospina…
Szczesny and not Ospina has been playing in the FA so the question of dropping Ospina is out of place.
If Szczesny is going to play I was surprised that AW did not play him in the last game – I think he played Fabianski in the last EPL game of last season presumably to get him sharp for the cup final. On merit you would have to say the Ospina should play. However may be there is a strategy here to keep 2 good keepers happy. Let’s say AW does sign Cech and he becomes our number one. AW then says to Ospina you’re number 2 but you will play in all domestic cup games (I think Barca played Ter Stegen in ECL for same reason). That way he keeps the number 2 reasonably happy and also match prepared if the number one loses form or is injured.
Well last season Fabianski played all FA Cup games up to the Final and was picked for the final.
In our 3rd League & FA Cup Double season 2001-02 Richard Wright played all the FA Cup games up to the Final and was dropped for the Final in favour of Seaman.
In our 2nd League & FA Cup Double season 1997-98 Manninger played all the FA Cup games up to the Final and was picked for the final.
I personally want Ospina, looking at Szczesny, he looks very out of sorts and despite us reaching the Final, he has made mistakes I don’t expect from him. He has also cost us a League Cup Final by running into Koscielny. Being dropped for league matches in favour of Ospina indicates who the best keeper is and like the author of this article says, we should play our best team.
I feel far more confident when Ospina is in the goals. Unfortunately, I think Wenger will choose Szczesny as he will stick to his usual way.
There might be a chance to see Ospina: if the club is planning to sell Szczesny and has already found a buyer, Wenger might feel unconcerned by his well being and decide to bench him.
But if they plan to keep him or haven’t found a buyer, Wenger will play him, to avoid hurting him or to give him the opportunity to shine and raise his price.
This is what he did last year with Fabianski (with the slight difference, Fab’s contract was about to end)