It might seem to be a bit of a knee jerk reaction to be thinking about whether or not to drop Petr Cech from the Arsenal first team. After all it was only his first competitive game for the Gunners and as Arsene Wenger said, the whole team played badly.
But it was still a nightmare debut for the Czech Republic international and there is a good case for saying that his two mistakes against West Ham, especially the first one just before halftime, were the main reason why Arsenal lost the match rather than merely failing to win. And with the very reliable David Ospina in reserve, it is not as if Wenger does not have an excellent option.
What would have happened if Ospina had performed like that in his first Premier League start when he replaced Wojciech Szczesny after the Southampton defeat on new years day? I would suggest that the Colombian would have been dropped straight back to the bench. As it was, Ospina kept clean sheets in the next three games and hardly put a foot wrong from then on, with his one and only error coming in the 1-0 home loss to Swansea.
So Cech has already made more errors in goal than Ospina did in his 18 Premier League games for us. And I for one am very glad that we kept him at the club because we may soon need him. I reckon that Wenger will play Cech again at Crystal Palace on Sunday but if there is more trouble between the posts then I think it could be the bench for our only summer signing.
We cannot afford to be throwing away too many more points after all and even though it would be a massive blow to us and the keeper, would the boss really have much choice?