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Arsenal: David Ospina The Epitome Of Faith Repaid
By Josh Sippie
Arsene Wenger is not keen to make promises to his Arsenal players and it makes sense why, as they rarely pay him back. But David Ospina has.
Arsenal is very much a faith-based club. Arsene Wenger promotes loyalty within the club and anyone who can stay loyal is often met with rewards. Just look at Theo Walcott.
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Still, Wenger is also not one to make idle promises. He wouldn’t guarantee Jack Wilshere any specific play time and the same applies top Joel Campbell and why he is currently playing in Portugal (where he is doing great, by the way).
When Wenger does promise playing time (I’m thinking Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain), it doesn’t always work out. They can’t repay the faith that Wenger is showing in them.
As such, it does my heart a solid to see Wenger go out on a limb and promise a player a certain degree of time and see that promise repaid.
Recent reports indicate that the only reason David Ospina is still here instead of at Everton is because Wenger promised him the Champions League, much like last year. Only this time, he would get all of the Champions League, as indicated by the nod to play against PSG.
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Wenger is a fantastic judge of talent and no doubt he had all the faith in the world in David Ospina, but still, it was a risk. A massive risk. And it almost looked like it was going to blow up in everyone’s face when Cavani headed home in the 44th second. Yet it was Ospina who earned himself the man of the match by saving a handful of wide open chances that PSG squandered.
This is what it is supposed to look like when Wenger puts faith in a player. I just wrote something very similar to this when Xhaka was handed a chance due to Coquelin’s sickness against Watford. He capitalized.
This time around, Ospina capitalized on the faith that Wenger showed in him. Why can’t it always work like that? Why can’t Walcott and the Ox step up their game for Le Prof and all the faith they have been shown?
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David Ospina should and will start throughout the Champions League and I don’t think that should cause us any uneasiness. Wenger invested a huge chunk of faith in the man and he has already begun paying that back.