Should Arsenal drop Ospina for Cech in vital PSG clash?

The Arsenal and Colombian international star David Ospina has so far been the man with the gloves for all of the Champions League games the Gunners have played this season, and to be fair to him there has been no reason for anyone to criticise the manager’s decision.

Ospina was arguably the most important Arsenal player on the pitch when we took on tonight’s opponents PSG in Paris back in September as he kept us in the game with a string of fine saves which allowed Alexis Sanchez to rescue a point with his late goal.

The Colombian was also the player who sat next to Wenger when he did his pre-match press conference yesterday and that normally tells you he will be in the starting line-up, but as reported by Arsenal.com the keeper did talk about the strong competition between him and Petr Cech and also said that he knows that he must respect the manager’s decision.

Ospina said, “Every match is different, though. We know we are facing a quality side on Wednesday, with very well-known players, so we have to do our job. We want to finish top of the group.

“We prepare ourselves to be fit and ready for every match in every competition, and when the coach picks you we want to show what we can do. I really want to give my all for Arsenal.

“You have to show what you can do in training, you have to be very mentally tough. I compete with Petr Cech for the position, and we both want to play. So there is competition for places. It’s important, that rivalry.

“He’s a very good goalkeeper. We’re all familiar with how good he is. That allows me to have fierce competition so I work as hard as I can to play. As footballers, we want to play in every match, but you have to respect the manager’s decision.”

Is this a hint that Ospina may know that it will be Cech and not him in goal for Arsenal tonight? It is a massive game after all and Ospina did nearly cost us a place in the knockout stage last season after a terrible game against Olympiacos.

The boss is the one who will take the flak if Ospina makes a mistake tonight and in such an important game should we not be starting with the strongest possible XI?

Bob.