Why Arsenal MUST let Szczesny go this summer

Wojciech Szczesny was hailed as Arsenal’s big star of the future when Arsene Wenger made him his Number One at just 21 years of age, but this season his star has fallen right out of the sky. He was unceremoniously dropped by Wenger after some ridiculous mistakes against Southampton on New Years Day and was quickly replaced by a now-fit David Ospina.

Since that change Arsenal have played 11 games with the Colombian between the sticks and the Gunners have won ELEVEN of them – and six of those games have ended with clean sheets. That is an amazing 92% win ratio!

Another amazing stat is that Ospina makes an average of 3.29 saves between goals, that compares with Szczesny’s paltry 1.4 saves per goal. How much of a difference is that?

It is obvious that Wenger has lost faith in his Polish shotstopper, who has even been replaced by Lukasz Fabianski in the Poland national team, and Szczesny now has a hill to climb to get some first team football in the future if he stays at Arsenal.

It will be very interesting to see if Wenger allows Szczesny to play in the FA Cup semi-final next weekend, as he has always preferred to use his sub goalkeeper in that competition, but considering the steadiness of Ospina I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger sent the Pole a message by leaving him out. It would certainly be a massive signal if Wenger played Martinez instead…

Whatever happens in the Cup I really can’t see Szczesny staying on as second fiddle next season, and if the rumours are true and we are aiming to buy Petr Cech, then he will DEFINITELY be on his way out. It would be better for Wojciech and obviously better for Arsenal, but who would buy him?

Tags ospina Szczesny

44 Comments

  1. I don’t see why we MUST let go of him. Ospina is fantastic but Szczesny is a fine backup

    If he wants to stay and fight, he should be allowed to. If he wants to leave, that’s different matter

    Ospina was a fantastic transfer last summer.

  2. I doubt it that wenger would let him go! Wenger has belief in him still, but what “le professor” wants of szczesny is to get his act back together focus on his game, and getting his head back in the right place! Coyg!

  3. As far as I’m concerned, Szczesny stays. But on a side note, it’s nice to watch the Manchester Derby as a complete neutral.

  4. buy Cech, sell szczesny. Ospina’s a good keeper but not world class. We’re not going to get close to EPL or UCL title without a world class goal keeper. Prime example is two goals against Monaco that shouldve been saved.

      1. and way more examples of GK’s winning things for their teams. Neuer, De Gea, Van Der Saar, Cech, Casillas, Buffon, Cesar…. If you think Szczesny and Ospina are going to lead us to glory you are deluded, none of them come close to the standard required.

  5. Next article, boring Chelsea Ko Arsene and his merry Arsenal.
    But we can always try next year, I mean Wenger has made sure we used to it.

    Wenger out and maybe we cab really challenge next year and not just talk about next year every year

  6. “Since that change Arsenal have played 11 games with the Colombian between the sticks and the Gunners have won ELEVEN of them – and six of those games have ended with clean sheets. That is an amazing 92% win ratio”!

    Wouldn’t 11 from 11 = 100%
    Sorry I’m out of school but has this changed?

  7. This is now the Arsenal way , kick a player When he’s down and When your new shining toy wants out after 2 Seasons , you scream Money grabber

    Szczesnyi s one of ours he’s going through a rough patch and so far he’s kept his mouth shut and should be focusing on getting back to the level we know he can be.

    This also reminds me of Mert .It seems he only needs to make one wrong move in a match and it won’t matter if he outworks everrybody else for the reminder of the game.Arsenal fans just love to play favourites.

    We keep playing into the hands of the media and hollow head pundits.

    For example the pundits now say they can’t understand why Arsenal fans give Giroud so much stick whlie it was them that fuled the smear campaign against him .Think fans, just think.

    1. If they would have just bought Yaya the birthday cake things would have been so different.

        1. Their recruitment is very poor. They keep on failing to buy players that actually improve their first team. They keep on getting players like Sagna, Jovetic and Bony just for the sake of it and then don’t play them.

          They are where they are because Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal all bought players to go directly in their first 11 while they keep on buying players that they don’t even trust.

          1. @NY..

            They should have gotten themselves some “THE COQ”…That would have done some Coq blocking for them.. We the gooners ain’t complaining though..

  8. If i were Wenger i would sell him, we need serious people in team, not children. I remember Podolski debate, Wenger didnt play him cuz he is bad, look at him in Inter, same reason Szcz is on the bench, btw cities golden age have ended, next season major overhoul they wont make top 4 LOL

  9. That camera zoom of Pellegrini hiding and wishing the old trafford stadium could swallow him.. lol

  10. hey sagna, how’d that trophy thing work out? from starter on a contender to bench warmer on a sinking turd… we are gonna have to fight for 2nd, comes down to who beats chelsea, next week united or following week us, i may hope chesea win vs man utd since they won today.

    1. Arsenal started Untd run, after we defeated them, they won all their games, so i expect next time we meet, we will end their streak, thats fair LOL

  11. What is the criteria for writing for this absolute mess of a blog? Just being able to put sentences together? We have to sell a good keeper because another keeper is currently performing better?

    I’m sure it has nothing to do with this Coquelin guy I have been reading about protecting the back 4 so they can perform their duties much better which doesn’t leave the keeper as exposed as they were earlier in the season.

    Even the save percentage is a stupid thing to reference because we’re making teams take higher chance shots from outside the box recently.

    I’m not completely sticking up for Woj, but you’re an idiot to think that it’s anything that Ospina is doing that is contributing to this run of form.

    1. If we can get Cech than why not? You want to win EPL, you need every player tip top, Szcz always had stupid moments, for me he will never be top GK, his behaviour costed us many times, look at De Gea, great GK can make change

      1. I’ve always been a critic of WS and felt him was an immature and uncomposed keeper on the pitch.
        However I feel for him a little as Ospina has been made to look better than he probably is by the reinforced midfield strength, (Coquelin) and defensive improvements.
        You could perhaps say that these improvements were helped by removing the nervousness Schez exuded into his back four.

        OT:
        Fed up today with Chelsea winning, (and cesc scoring), also would have preffered City to have won the derby if there had to be a winner, cant stand MU and Van Gall!!

        1. WS has been Arsenal 1st choice since 2011 and i cant see any improvements, Wenger always had patience with younger players, but Ospina came and took his position, fair. If any of you played football you would realise how GK is important, he is commander. We didnt concide any goal from set piece since Ospina took his position, while WC has problem with decisions, the worst problem GK can have, COQ was great but you cant took great things Ospina did. Chelski probably will win EPL, but i will take pleasure with beathing them on Emirates, we lost EPL in first 10 games, but you can see improvements, we are defeating big teams, winning 16 games from 18, crazy streak, i am hyped up for next season, something special will come !!!

      2. Thank you, finally somebody with intelligence. All these people complain about us not winning EPL and then dont want players like Cech… MAKES NO SENSE!!

        1. haha, if cech can pick team to join, he will end up in Arsenal.
          He want to stay in London cuz of his children +
          He want top club ( spuds aint one ) +
          Arsenal need top class players +
          Wenger likes him +
          its no brainer, hope he choose Arsenal if nothing just to stick it to chlelski 😀

  12. That was a crap result.
    So if United win next weekend we go to third place 🙁 (with a game in hand).
    Our home match against Chelsea will be a HUGE match.

    Lets beat Reading to at least keep our trophy hunt alive

    1. I hear you Fred but it was the first match in ages where I didn’t really give a monkeys – appeared to be no good or bad result, any result had its benefits. In terms of avoiding the eternal 4th place “trophy” Utd win works for us – 5 point gap back to City now and a Man U/Arsenal battle for 2nd/3rd brewing up.

  13. I don’t envy Wenger on this one. My Gooner heart says lets see how good Ospina can be and I would also welcome redemption for WS some where down the line. But my selfish unemotional head says Cech, still at prime GK age, is a no-brainer. But a big part of me wants no frigging charity from Chelski and if we do achieve something for it not to be by having one of their key players doing a “reverse Fab”. Whatever happens will be a good indicator of what Wenger has on his mind here in terms of his tenure being up soon. 2 years left to do something = sign Cech. For a longer term plan see how good DO/WS can be – despite what some people say I think both could be top 10 goalies in the world. Transplanting Ospina’s brain in to that Szcesney physique may be the answer.

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