What should Arsenal do about their goalkeeping options?

Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczesny and David Ospina are both being linked with moves this summer, but the club are likely to keep one of the pair as back-up to Petr Cech.

The Czech international has been amazing since making the switch across London last summer, and deservedly earned the Golden Glove award in his debut season with our beloved club. There is no doubt that he will start the new season as the number one, but who will be his back-up?

Ospina was the man to warm the bench for the former Chelsea star this term, but he is believed to have grown frustrated with his lack of football, and is said to be ‘determined’ to leave the club with Everton and Besiktas named as potential suitors.

Szczesny spent the entire last term on loan with Roma, and enjoyed an extended run in their first team. The Polish international may struggle to retain his number one role following the signing of Brazilian Allison, but the Serie A giants are believed to remain keen on keeping him on a temporary basis for the new season regardless.

Should the Colombian shot-stopper be sold this window, allowing Wojciech to leave on a temporary deal seems highly-unlikely, unless Arsene Wenger has a new-found confidence in youth product Matt Macey, who has been operating as the club’s third choice this term.

The 21 year-old is yet to make his senior debut for Arsenal, and has only four appearances out on loan with Accrington Stanley to call on, so for me he is unlikely to earn the number two role, not for this season at least.

We could of course cut ties with both Szczesny and Ospina and bring in a new option to play behind Cech, but with two decent back-ups already in the squad, I would expect one to stay on.

Let us know your thoughts in our poll below.

Who should play back-up to Cech this season?

  • Ospina (43%, 114 Votes)
  • Szczesny (31%, 83 Votes)
  • Sign someone new (16%, 42 Votes)
  • Matt Macey (10%, 27 Votes)

Total Voters: 266

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Tags Arsenal Cech Everton ospina Szczesny

19 Comments

  1. Arsenal also has Martinez coming back from a loan spell and he could be our number 2. If I were Wenger I would keep hold of Ospina for 1 more year.

  2. It’s one area I have no concerns over
    Keep Ospina and loan Szczesny If possible

    I am more concerned about a CB to partner koscielny, a winger to partner Alexis and a Top CF

  3. I highly doubt the talkertive,Unprofessional,Immature Szczcesny will ever play for Arsenal again….

    Personally,I want him offloaded even if he is potentially a world class, I hate loose mouths!

  4. Peter Cech is a great keeper specially on the air balls. However, we have seen him on so many occasions struggling to save ground shoots which came near the post. For instance, Christal Palace’s equalizer, on the Man City match, Debruyne goals etc were among the goals that should have been saved with Cech’s ability. Any way, he is my best goal keeper for Arsenal despite these limitations as no one is perfect except god. When we come to our backup issue, it better to return back Szcesny from the loan spell as he is younger and can be improved more. Ospina is good but ha a height limitation and not reliable to win set piece and corner balls.

    1. please remind us how he was the best GK in the 2014/2015 season over all the giants in the EPL?

  5. Whatever you guys think szcesny is better than ospina for me. @tatek you got a point, Cech flopped against westham’s zarate, palace’s Bolaise and city’s De Brunye

    1. His view on two of the three was obstructed. Gabriel blocking his view made the De Bruyne and Bolasie saves harder than they looked. Agree on the Zarate goal and Sczcezza

  6. I would play cech in every match possible, bar the league cup and champions league dead rubbers.

    That means that any of the 4 “reserve keepers” can be understudy, allowing the 3 remaining keepers either go out on loan or sell one of them. Huddart or Iliev can then become 3rd choiceand share u21 duty. Doing this allows an extra squad place for an over 21, which with our injuries is more important than 3 keepers over 21. However one of the loan keepers should have a clause that if either of our top 2 keepers sustain injury he can be recalled.

    Everton have been linked with ospina and Szczesney , lukaku wants to play CL football we desperately need another centre forward. All makes too much sense for me.

  7. No senior player wants to play No 2. to Cech because they know they’ll never get game time. Bring Martinez back or give a youngster a chance. Cech has a great fitness record anyways, and the kids can always surprise you. If someone else decent is available on a cheap loan deal I’m okay with that too. Not really concerned about the position.

  8. These guys have a reserved place for themselves in the starting XI – Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Xhaka, Ozil and Sanchez. Monreal is reliable enough for LB spot but Rodriguez is definitely welcome. Ramsey/Cazorla/Coquelin is also good enough for the CM spot. So a CB, LW and a ST is probably required. As for backups, For GK, Martinez is good enough for me and szczesny for another loan is good as cech is soon approaching 35. Jenkinson for RB, Mert and Gabriel/Calum for CB, Gibbs for LB, Coquelin and elneny for CDM, Ramsey or Cazorla whoever is not in starting XI for CM, for CAM Wilshere or basically half of our squad, Wingers could be campbell/Iwobi/ and either one of walcott and ox and Giroud is good enough for baclup ST.

  9. Sczceszny has been really well received by the Roma fans.. Must’ve done something right!!
    For me Sczceszny’s limitations are to do with his mentality, not his playing style in which I personally think he’ll mature better. I really don’t think Ospina will ever possess the command of his area that other great keepers have… And considering our vulnerabilities to set pieces, often due to our size (and if, hypothetically we get that ‘mobile striker’ the majority of fans crave, we’re going to lose an absolute boss at covering the near post from our XI), our fondness for attacking football which often leaves us incredibly open at the back against the lesser teams we really need that commanding play-style.
    Don’t get me wrong, I really like Ospina and think he’s got good heart and amazing reflexes. But some of his set-piece decisions have been just as woeful as Szceszny’s distribution… His record with us has been great, but there’s been a lot of times our CB’s have bailed him out of silly situations.

    1. On a side note kicker (a very, very reliable German source – reported Xhaka over a month ago) have come out with a second link to us and R. Rodriguez!!
      20mil release clause is a joke if you ask me.. Especially considering we’d fetch at least 10mil for Gibbs. Would love to see him at our club!

  10. Ospina has told friends and family that he is moving to Turkey in the summer.

    Maybe Wenger should gatecrash Leicester City’s target!
    Even though this keeper got relegated with his current club,
    He has the most saves made (138) within the top 5 clubs in Europe… Apparently he will only cost £3 million.

    English Premier League champions Leicester City are set to make Hanover 96 goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler their first signing of this transfer window.

    The 27-year-old made 36 appearances for the Bundesliga’s bottom club this season but could not save his team from relegation.

    “Ron-Robert Zieler has exercised his option right enshrined in his contract and Hanover have been informed that he will travel to Leicester for contract talks,” the club said in a statement.

  11. I watched ospina in world cup before we were linked to him and was very impressed.

    In 2014/15 season he took his chance and defensively the team were excellent when he was playing. In PL for every 90 minutes played ospinas stats were the best af any goalkeeper. For every two goals ospina conceded, hart, de gea and courtois conceeded three. Ospinas stats for clean sheets and saves per goal conceded were also the best.

    Basically ospina is too good to sit on the bench. Some of his saves for columbia have been awesome, he is rated by messi judging by his comments after a match.

    If he wants to leave, that is understandable and we should let him. He should not be sold to another PL club. If he repeats his 2014/15 stats for a whole season then that is 23 goals conceeded in the PL all season.

  12. Bartlomiej Dragowski!!!!!!! Just 18 and one of the best GK an unknown gem till now! I would easily predict he will be a GK like Manuel Neuer.
    Just see his reflexes and saves and his positioning…We need to buy him, let sz or osp go if they want. Buy Dragowski n let him grown under peter! he could be ur long term GK for us as well.
    Cheers!!!

  13. our goalkeeping position settles itself. We have a No 1 goalie (Czech), Ospinal No 2 and the martinez No3. So I do not think there is even any need to discuss this position. We have greater problems to worry about.

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