Arsenal: David Ospina Again Highlights Wojciech Szczesny Mistake

David Ospina showed his shortcomings in Arsenal’s loss to West Brom, again highlighting the mistake Arsene Wenger made in letting Wojciech Szcesny leave.

The position of goalkeeper has been one that, since, the departure of Jens Lehman, has been a major weakness of the Arsenal squad, plaguing their quest for success with flap-filled set pieces and handling errors galore.

However, in the summer of 2015, all of that changed. In a transfer window in which Arsene Wenger was worryingly quiet, especially when it came to outfield investments, he did make one rather surprising and uncharacteristic move: signing Petr Cech from Chelsea after he lost his battle for a starting role to Thibault Courtois.

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Since then, thanks to the continued development of Wojciech Szczesny, the growing familiarisation of David Ospina with English football and the experience of Cech, Wenger was suddenly influxed with talent at a position, not only has been a major issue of the squad for many years, but also one in which only one starter is needed and in which injuries are not all that common – I’m aware of the irony of that statement given the issues that presented the team on Saturday.

It was those issues during the 3-1 loss to West Brom that arises the questioning of Wenger’s decision-making last summer. Entering this season, the trio of Ospina, Szczesny and Cech were all on the books and all hoping to prove themselves worthy of regular playing time. It was already established that Cech would be the primary starter but there was uncertainty over who his reserve would be.

Like the previous summer in which he was presented with the same dilemma, Wenger decided to loan out Szcesny, sending him to Roma, the same destination from the year before, and persist with Ospina as Cech’s back up and Arsenal’s starter in European and cup games. It was a decision that, with every game, is looking like more and more of a mistake.

In the loss to West Brom, Ospina looked nervous throughout. He was directly responsible for the second goal and could be blamed for the third thanks to failing to command his box from the set piece, a weakness of his game that has been heavily critiqued in the past, and justifiably so.

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Szcesny wil return to the Emirates in the summer after an excellent year in Italy, proving his natural talents and maturing well as he ages, ironing out the mental mistakes that littered his game previously. It would be a surprise if he is not reinstated ahead of Ospina, if he can be convinced to stay after yet another shunning.

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