Arsenal legend Bob Wilson believes Petr Cech should have started against Paris Saint-Germain last night.
The former Arsenal goalkeeper claims Arsene Wenger made a mistake in leaving out the 34-year-old in favour of David Ospina, despite being the club’s cup competitions shot-stopper this season.
Wilson, who made 234 appearances for the Gunners in a 11-year spell at the club between 1963 to 1974, said:
‘David Ospina is a terrific goalkeeper.
‘But when we’re wanting to be champions of Europe you have to play your best team. If you really want to get that title.
‘And clearly, week in week out, Petr Cech is performing above David Ospina.’
Wilson does have point. If Arsenal are serious about competing for the Champions League, Wenger must play his best eleven.
Since arriving at the club in summer 2015, Cech has made just five appearances in the Champions League and has yet to feature this season for Arsenal.
Cech is arguably the club’s first-choice goalkeeper but Wenger has decided to play Ospina in goal in European games – it seems they have an arrangement of some sort. Now I’m not sure how Cech feels about this, but surely he would want to play in Europe? And surely Wenger brought him to do so as well?
The problem that will pose Wenger now, after qualifying to the knockout stages of the Champions League, is will the Frenchman switch from Ospina to Cech? Hopefully he does. Ospina has done a good job in goal for us so far, but Cech is the better of the two, and with knockout stages coming up in the near future, we will need our best to play.