Wojciech Szczesny has dismissed rumours he is ready to depart Arsenal this summer and is ready to fight for his place in the starting line-up next season.
Szczesny was ousted from the starting XI at the start of the New Year after being discovered smoking in the dressing room showers following their 2-0 away defeat to Southampton in the Premier League. The Pole only managed to make a further five appearances, all coming in the FA Cup, while David Ospina was promoted to regular Premier and Champions League games.
As a result of his relegation to the bench, there was talk of Szczesny leaving the club this summer, with reports suggesting Arsene Wenger had finally had enough of the brash Pole’s behaviour.
However, despite his lack of playing time since January, Szczesny has insisted his future lies with Arsenal and is aiming to once again become Wenger’s regular between the sticks.
Earlier in the week, the 25-year-old said on his future:
‘I fully accept the boss’ decisions, whatever they may be’
‘Of course, it’s understandable that your pride feels hurt and your ambition dented. That’s only natural and to be expected.
‘People love to speculate and people love to gossip a bit. But I love this club and I don’t want to ever leave it.’
This is of course good news for Arsenal and Wenger, but it remains to be seen whether the Frenchman will bring in a more experienced shot-stopper to bolster his squad, with Petr Cech being touted as a possible transfer this summer.
But if Wenger fails or decides against a move for Cech, or any other goalkeeper for that matter this summer, this leaves him with Ospina and Szczesny vying for a starting berth in the side. So with that being said, who out of Ospina and Szczesny should be Arsenal’s number one next season?
Szczesny has superior Premier League experience under his belt and when on his game is a top goalkeeper. However, the Pole does have a tendency to be over confident which leads to silly mistakes and precious points being dropped. But he is tried and tested and regardless of what people may think, he is a very good goalkeeper – Barcelona were once interested in him.
On the other hand we have Ospina to consider. The Colombian, 26, was undoubtedly brought from Nice last summer to be the club’s second-choice goalkeeper. However, to his shock and delight, he found himself starting 20 games in all competition in his debut season – only three less than Woj. It has to be said that Ospina did pretty well, keeping three consecutive clean sheets in his first five outings, conceding only two goals. But despite his decent displays, there seems to be an air of uncertainty whether he can actually become Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper – I just can’t quite put my finger on it. He is a good shot-stopper, but has shown he isn’t all that competent in his decision making (that goal we conceded against Swansea at home near the end of the campaign is a prime example).
Both keepers have cases to be Arsenal’s number one next season, but because I am slightly less nervy when Szczesny is in goal, and due to his Premier League experience, I would lean towards the Poland international.
This is just my opinion on the matter. At the end of the day, it will be Wenger who makes the call.
Well i will go for Szczesny to be Arsenal goalies next season because Ospina make us lost champion league to monaco last season
Think Ospina should still start the season unless a better replacement comes in. I think Szczesny gets too cocky & makes more & BIGGER howlers.
If a top keeper comes in i would loan Szczesny out for a year & see how he gets on.
Szczesny would be my number 1 everyday of the week yes he made costly mistakes but ospina was undoubtedly helped by the return of koscielny and the emergence of coquelin the stats don’t lie szczesny faced twice the amount of shots ospina has faced now is that down to him being a poor keeper or the defence letting opponents have more shots on goal fact is Szczesny pulls off harder saves while Ospina normally makes saves you’ld expect keepers to make and opsina’s height too is a worry when collecting high balls or crossess
And lets not forget who won the EPL golden glove last two seasons along with peter cech. A poor goal keeper wont win the epl golden glove even if he has the best defence in the world because the epl is just very competitive
Ospina all the way. Every moment Szczesny is on the pitch I’m worried about his lack of concentration and poor distribution.
ospina is far better than szczesny to be used reguarly in the team. Szczesney lack confidence alot and prone to mistakes almost all te time; ospia mistake is just normal,ulike czczesney, he’s very calculative and he conceed less goes. To me, i tink is far beter and i will choses him over czczesny to be used in the regular time
Naturally you want to go for Ospina because Szcz is a total arrogant dick. I really dislike the guy although something arsenal fans are not talking about is that he was looking the real deal in the games leading up to that horror show at southhampton (where to me he looked hung over).
Ospina in his last game was at fault for the goal AND let that one shot slip right through his hands (right at him) and off the cross bar. I don’t think we can rely on him but we can’t trust an immature kid (not because of his ability but for his shear stupidity).
Ability wise I go with Szcze. but I choose neither.
Ospina nd Szcesney are gud goalies; wat I cee is d incompetence of d goal kipping dept in transforming dem into great goalkippers;any of dem on a gud day is capable of an A performance.Fabianski left nd sum trainer transformed him into a beta shot stoper at Swansea evidenced by his brillant performance in last fixture at d Emirate; gud insitu trainers will do same wit both +spina nd Szcesney if dey leave Arsenal so my take is a shake up of arsenal goalkipping dept urgently, mayb a change of personnel, new code to check discipline of wich Szcesney seem to be culprit, change in trainning regime, intensity, simulation exercises,setting stats starndards dat ‘must’ be attained.