I suggested before Arsenal travelled to Brighton for the 4th round of the FA cup yesterday that the game was a great chance for Wojciech Szczesny to lay down a marker and prove to Arsene Wenger that he should still be the first choice keeper for the Gunners.
And with Arsenal now involved in a tight race with the likes of Man United, Southampton and Liverpool to finish in the top four of the Premier League, there might not be too many chances for a second choice keeper at the club. And there are also rumours that the Arsenal boss might be looking for a new keeper in the summer, so the player who is sitting on the bench for the rest of this season could be looking for a new club at the end of it.
So did our Poland international do enough to regain his place? The short answer is no. There were only two shots on target from the home side and both of them ended in goals with the keeper possibly at fault for the first one at the near post. Brighton’s other shots were off target, but it does leave Szczesny with the unwanted stat of having conceded two without making a save.
And after three clean sheets in a row from Ospina, that is not good news for Shezzer. However, I did feel that Ospina has not been sorely tested since getting into the team, so I did a quick stat comparison on Squawka.com based on a 90 minute average from their EPL games.
And that does not help Szczesny’s cause either, with Ospina actually making more saves, catches and punches per game. The Pole beats the Colombian with his distribution but that is about it as Ospina has not made any errors and has not been booked, whereas Szczesny has and been sent off.
I know that stats can be misleading, especially with Ospina only having two EPL games under his belt, but at the same time I can see no reason for him to be dropped in favour of Szczesny and unless he does something bad in the games coming up, Szczesny may have to hope for an FA cup run to get any game time at all for the rest of the season. Is his whole Arsenal career at risk?
Leave ospina in for awhile 3 clean sheets that’s what I’m talking about he hasn’t done anything stupid and cmon smoking in the showers how stupid is that he deserves to be dropped
I agree 100%, keep Ospina in. But I would say two things. Szczesny’s performances on the pitch this season have not been as bad as people are generally making out – the whole thing is snowballing out of control. And secondly, praise should go to the outfield players during Ospina’s recent good run because frankly he has had very little to do and is untested to date. He might be having a positive influence on the back four as some have suggested but that is just conjecture.
Ospina and Coquelin are just two examples of footballing positives that can arise from unplanned events – I like what I see but would be fearful of coming on here when Ospina has his first howler or Coq gets run ragged and has a stinker.
I think Ospina organises his defence better, don’t think szcezney really does much organising and then is forced to do something stupid like at Southampton. Also, Ospina i think just breathes an air of confidence into the team, he has a presence and a sense of calmness about him, which reflects on the defence… There always seems to be a sense of panic and its all a bit frantic when szcezney is in goal. I def think for the time being Ospina should stay in goal.
Actually, I’m thinking the complete opposite on Szczesny. I think (and am convinced) that his Golden Glove award was masqued by the incredible defensive performances BFG and Koscielny have put in, while Cech literally saved nearly 20 points for Chelsea without leaning on his centre back-pairing, while the realistic fans knew Szczesny wasn’t even top 5 that year (Lloris, Begovic, De Gea, Cech, Speroni all did better).
He’s (sczesny) done enough to save him some space on a bench…. Coyg!
OT: Van Pussy’s latest comments on the FA cup:
“We are the highest-ranked team left in the competition.
I think it is vital (we win a trophy this year), especially with this FA cup.
I think it has been 11 years since Manchester United won it last. That was actually the first thing that Sir Alex Ferguson said to me as well – he said ‘I want to win the FA cup. We really want to win it.”
There is no mention of Arsenal as a ranked team. I wish we were playing Manu next and shut him up for good.
In the end, words like this will all add up to the fun. He will eat his words and be left red faced!
We won’t brag. Let’s allow the boys go about their job quietly and one step at a time. We have a chance to go ahead of Manure, and be the team with the highest number FA cup trophies.. That’s not a bad achievement, if you ask me.
Top ranked based on what ? Performance last season ? Nope. Odds ? I can’t check now but I doubt there’s much in it. Must be on the amount of money spent. Problem with Manure is that they can’t accept that they’re clinging on and are no longer a great force. The only reason that they’re ahead of us is that the finishing when we played them was atrocious. On a normal day we’d have won that match by at least 3 goals. I predict that they’ll come 5th.
I really hope they don’t sign anyone ds window.. Arrogant LVG thinks he can finish in the top 4 without making additions to his average back line.
They were arrogant enough to declare themselves title contenders.. Smh.
I really hope we give them a good spanking at OT; they’re long overdue for a hiding.
Szczesny still has not convince me that he is worthy of no1 shirt! Coyg!
Pubgooner@
hey! Im with you on that bro! Would love nothing better than to draw manure, and knock them out of the fa cup! Nothing personal “rvp” just business! Coyg!
Not convince
just last season he was dropped for misbehaving…
and this season again…
next season its gonna be the same…
might as well drop him for good…
we are not lacking of gks….
David ospina so far has showed the characteristics of a no 1 goal keeper, solid, alert, calm and very commanding around his box! Coyg!
Ospina and Martinez have a better clean sheet ratio for the games played.
Ospina is 3 from 4(all competitions)
Martinez has got 3 in 6(all competitions)
Szcesney has… wait for it… 3 in 21! (all competitions)
The numbers speak for themselves, and I dont think one can blame the defence too much as martinez was our keeper at a point during that period and he did really well. I don’t know whether its an attitude problem or something, but he definitely doesnt deserve to be our number 1 right now, maybe even not our number 2.
He won the Golden Glove last season
He is still quality. Just having a bad season
He is number 2 at moment but good enough to fight for 1st
he won because there is no good gks apart from Cech……
that doesnt mean a thing….
most golden glove are won by gks from top teams…
it doesnt prove that hes good
He was at fault for the second. Got caught in no man’s land. Should have either stayed on his line and trusted the defender to get it or anticipated the move and saved the defender from doing anything.
Instead he rushed and panicked immaturely like he has done all season.
Never rated him and never will, mid table keeper who has for no reason been given ample amount of chances like other “favourites”
onto
other topics hearing some worrying rumours thst other clubs are sniffing around akpom, big mistake if we dnt tie him down y have we let it go dwn to the wire with him. Lad looks extremley gifted especially from what i saw yesterday.
I’ve always said that for Arsenal to be among the very best again in Europe we need a world class keeper. The last time we won the league and had a chance at the Champions League trophy we had Jens Lehmann.
Szcznesny just isn’t world class, and I don’t think he ever will. I’ll put my hopes on Ospina, he had an amazing World Cup and looks very solid so far with Arsenal.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOsssspsinaaa
He made no saves and concided 2 goals, ospina should be left in the xi