There has been one interesting footnote to Arsenal’s win over Watford on Saturday that has not really been discussed by the JustArsenal readers, which is the fact that the 21 year-old Matt Macey was named as the substitute keeper ahead of David Ospina, apparently because the Colombian Number One suffered a “sore shoulder” on international duty.
This raises an interesting question as to whether Ospina will still be “injured” on Tuesday night when Arsenal face Bayern Munich. Arsene Wenger was soundly citicised for playing David Ospina ahead of Petr Cech in the game against Olympiakos, and for his second game in the Champions League we were beaten yet again.
Now it is obvious that Wenger persuaded Ospina to stay in the summer with the promise that he would be the regular cup keeper, which included the Champions League. After the blunder, Wenger got very annoyed with his continual questioning over why he hadn’t played the far more experienced Petr Cech in such a must-win game. Wenger was still angry last week when he said: “To kill a player like Ospina, he has been voted the best goalkeeper of the Copa America, he is on the Ballon d’Or list, he was by far the best goalkeeper of the Premier League in the second part of the season last year; I find that just sensationalism, it is not analysis of football.”
Even Petr Cech this week tried to play down any controversy by saying that he would also appreciate a rest. He said: “At any point of your career you want to play in every game.
“But in the modern game that’s almost impossible to do because you play so many matches in a season.
“There are days when you do need to be rested and get yourself mentally refreshed. That goes for everybody.”
But despite this, there are obviously hopes among Arsenal fans that Wenger will re-instate Cech for the must-win Bayern Munich game, but if he DOES, and he goes back on the assumed deal with Ospina, then where will that leave the Colombian star? The Mirror reckons that he is becoming frustrated and looking to be sold or go out on loan in January as he will be too unhappy if he just plays in the League Cup and the FA Cup.
As Wenger keeps pointing out, and all our fans know, Ospina was absolutely brilliant in our winning run last season, and it is extremely harsh on him to be dropped in favour of Cech anyway. But now Le Prof must make a massive decision on whether to stick with Ospina against Munich, or should he reinstate Cech against one of the best teams in the world?
Will Wenger stick to his guns and play Ospina? Or listen to reason and play his most experienced keeper?