Arsenal’s HUGE FA Cup Dilemma….

Wenger has a little keeper problem for the FA Cup final‏ by KM

Hello folks. There’s a huge debate round which of Arsenal’s goalkeepers should come in for the FA cup final. Every way you look at it this is the most important game of our season, so we might want to look at which keeper will bring in to give better confidence to our back line.

Let’s start with David Ospina, who took the gloves after Szczesny made a real mess of the Southampton game, effectively giving them the points. So the Colombian has had a very decent record. In all the games he’s played for the club we’ve had only 3 defeats in 23 appearances. Not too bad on the face of it, but there are more factors to consider.

The introduction of Coquelin to the side really improved our defensive record. Much more than the introduction of Ospina did, if you ask me. Both came in at similar times but you can argue who’s contribution is more vital to the squad. The first problem with Ospina is he is too short for a keeper. Another problem is the mistakes that have crept into his game.

When you are a goalkeeper every mistake you make can cost your team a goal, since you are usually the last man standing in front of the net. And he made 2 mistakes against Swansea and WBA recently that really throw in the questions again. If you remove them, I think most of us would start Ospina instead of Szczesny all day long.

Arsenal have really been patient with Szczesny’s errors and his dads comments, but Wenger finally benched him and gave him the FA cup place. The Arsenal fans, who are very loyal and humble to mistakes (Wenger for the last 10 years for example..) really have seen enough gaffes out of the Pole, but Ospinas recent displays really highlight the need of a solid GK, one we’ve missed for years.

Szczesny is a real mess when it comes to high balls and set pieces, which is disturbing for a tall goalkeeper at a top club. He may occasionally put in a good save but he’s also a disaster waiting to happen (the away game at Southampton is the most recent example).

I cannot compare our goalkeepers to what the other top 4 clubs have. Man United and Chelsea even have two goalkeepers of immense quality. Their reserve keepers would have been first choice at Arsenal for the past 10 years. Look at the saves Valdes made against Hull in a game that meant nothing. Incredible for someone who hasn’t played a competitive game for such a long time.

Anyway, I believe Wenger might go with Szczesny. He easily could be leaving the club in the summer, and Wenger might give him a last game to say goodbye. I just hope that the decision he makes is based on what will be best for the squad, not on sentimentality, ‘who plays in the cups’ or because he thinks we are too good that it won’t matter which one plays. Aston Villa don’t have anything to lose. For us it’s a little bit different.

So which keeper will you choose?

Konstantin

Tags ospina Szczesny

11 Comments

  1. If wenger wanted szczesny to start in the final he would’ve started him in the west brom game sunday. Ospina started the first game in the FA cup campaign and he’ll be the one to finish it , szczesny never really made a case for being 1st choice keeper when he given a run in the FA cup campaign.

  2. villa will give us a game.
    hull didnt give us one, we just bottled that first half in last years final

    grealish, benteke, delph, agbonlahor, yeah boi this will be good game- 🙂

    ospina is our best keeper -he plays- simple
    this is wrong game to be sentimental

  3. Easy, Ospina. I will be shocked if there is one fan who would rather see the Pole in goal. The only Pole any Gooners would like to see is strip pole… ya know that new fishing pole everybodys going nuts over.

  4. A few reasons for Villa to play out of their skins tomorrow:
    – their last trophy was in 1996
    – they already have 7 FA Cups making them one of the top teams in our land
    – their strike force is pretty respectable and could surprise our defence if we don’t put a shift in
    – a victory would see them in Europe
    – the new coach wants to put his mark on the club
    – a few players will be playing their last game for Villa

    We have all we need to win, pretty comfortably actually but we MUST turn up with a positive attitude and the hunger to win. I do not want to see a limping Arsenal tomorrow, we need to be rampant and play with spirit and purpose, we need to be aware of their Villa attacking threat, we need to be organised and stop letting our defence exposed to counters, we need to control the game and impose our tempo, we need to show class and convert our opportunities…no need having 20 attempts on goal if we can’t score one.

    COYG!

  5. No gambling. I need this trophy. I want us to start our game next season with Chelsea so that we can test our squad before the league begins though maybe that gave us false impression this season. But I want us to trash Chelsea in the community shield so that we can build on that as we did with Man city. The fear factor will go completely against the three teams (Manure, Chelsh*t, City). Let’s now have habit of winning at least a trophy every year. Field our best team. It is not pre-season but cup final irrespective of opposition.

  6. Ospiiiiiiiiina. No question. Don’t think I could handle Scezcny rushing out taking out benteke, giving them a pen and us being down to 10.

  7. “The first problem with Ospina is he is too short for a keeper”.

    “I cannot compare our goalkeepers to what the other top 4 clubs have. Man United and Chelsea even have two goalkeepers of immense quality. Look at the saves Valdes made against Hull in a game that meant nothing. Incredible……”

    Ospina height: 1.83m
    Valdes height: 1.83m

  8. “The first problem with Ospina is he is too short for a keeper.”

    Has Ospina’s lack of height for a keeper ever been exposed before? If yes, I haven’t seen it. My main problem is he doesn’t appear rugged and robust enough. Body language I guess :-/

    1. Hi Twig – To be clear, I was quoting the author of the piece. I haven’t got a problem with his height.

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