Arsenal: David Ospina Faith Hardly Worth Panicking Over
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal is all about faith and loyalty and Arsene Wenger has reinforced that by sticking with David Ospina against Bayern Munich. Don’t panic!
Ask Arsene Wenger and he will tell you Arsenal have three world class keepers. Say what you will about that, but the man has tremendous faith in whoever he puts between the sticks. Therefore it should be no great surprise that Wenger is going to stick with David Ospina when the Gunners travel to the Allianz Arena.
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Last year, this would have been grounds for a protest, and social media would have seen an uptick in the number of #WengerOuts being posted all over the Twittersphere.
But this year, everything seems to be falling in place for the Colombian.
Before the year started, Wenger made it clear that the only way they were able to hold onto Ospina was by promising him Champions League play. Seemed fair enough. And when he started making some outstanding saves against PSG in the group stages, it was hard to argue with his decision.
Nowadays, not only is Ospina just a clear-cut No. 2, some are even calling for him to be the No. 1.
After Cech’s disastrous efforts against his former club Chelsea, the Czech stopper wasn’t just Arsenal’s No. 1 keeper anymore. He was also public enemy No. 1. It was horrid.
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He did recover in the match against Hull City and put in a solid effort, but it’s hard to forget, especially in the contest of that match against Chelsea, what happened. Plus, Cech just hasn’t been having the greatest time this year. It’s been a bit shaky.
So unlike last year, sticking with Ospina to face Bayern might not meet with the same number of outcries. And it shouldn’t. To put it simply, Arsenal would not have won the group (which earned them the chance to face Bayern again!) if it wasn’t for Ospina. He was instrumental in the Gunner’s outing in Paris. He single-handedly convinced all Gunners that Edinson Cavani wasn’t right for us.
Which we should thank him for, that transfer rumor was getting out of hand.
Ospina should be able to reap the rewards that he planted, and Wenger is going to give him the chance to do that with a start against the Germans.
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It’s no lie that Ospina can look shaky in the air sometimes. We have seen him come out of goal and inexplicably chase people damn near the corner flag. Hopefully he can contain himself a bit, but in the end, we know how fantastic of a shot-stopper he is.