A new keeper was one of the four players declared by Thierry Henry to be vital for Arsene Wenger to add to the Arsenal squad this summer, to give the Gunners a real chance of winning the Premier League title. Whether you agree with our former striker and record goal scorer or not, the keeper question is definitely a big one for the boss to deal with.
Wojciech Szczesny has lost his place to last summer’s recruit David Ospina, and the is there anything to suggest he should get it back? The Colombian has done nothing wrong and has inspired a much better defensive record for Arsenal since he took the gloves from his Polish team mate.
According to Henry though, Arsenal need a step up in class from Ospina and having played with Seaman and Lehmann, the Frenchman knows the value of a star between the sticks. There was a suggestion this week that the Tottenham and France number one Hugo Lloris has a £14 million buy out clause and is desperate for Champions League football, and we have all heard about Chelsea’s Petr Cech’s possible availability. I have added the name of Southampton’s Fraser Forster who was behind the best defence in the league until his injury, and I have compared their stats on the Squawka.com website.
Well I had to use Cech’s league stats from last season to be fair and also adjust the scores per 90 minutes but the results here are very interesting.
They suggest that we already have the best of the four in Ospina, who wins in almost all of the important categories including punches per game, clean sheets, and goals conceded, as well as the most saves per goal. His overall total is way better – but he loses out on distribution accuracy. However, the Arsenal man is the only one not to have made a defensive error and his total score of 29 per game blows the others away. Cech is next best on 19, Forster third on 12 and Lloris way down on 6.
Cech and Forster are pretty close and I think if Arsenal were to look for a new Number One it should be one of these two, not Lloris, even though it would really annoy the Spuds.
But do we really need a new keeper when Ospina is doing so well?
shezza for cech or lloris……. upgrade
but nooo, ”he got the golden glove last year, hes a gooner, he saved my cat from being eaten by sharks, his dad is johnny 5 from short circuit”
yes u love him, u hold him gently while humming the knightrider theme.
u bake him cookies with lil raisins.
but its time to be cutthroat- look what cech achieved at chelsea- hes still goin
@muffdiver
Whoop!!! There it is…
spot on. If Arsenal wants to play with the big boys time to make big decisions. World class GK like Cech is available, won’t be too much either. Let’s get him then. I like Szczesny but his time is just about up. He’s clearly not first choice quality and this has not been his only opportunity. It seems every season he loses form at some point.
If Chelsea won’t give us ba because we look dangerous we won’t get cech either.unless he begs Chelsea to let him stay in London due to a settle family
Szczesny is 25. He’s a pup in goal keeping terms. I spina is good, but he’s not world class. Bring in world class keeper.
I think (almost) every gooner know Ospina EPL stats. 13 apps, 11 won, 1 draw and just 1 defeat. He already booked 7 cleansheet. So, actually we should be worry about the second goalie not the number one. Peter Cech and Lloris won’t be please to warm the bench. If Chelsea and Spuds let them go, another rational doubt, then it will be up for them. Lloris maybe take the shot instead while Cech will have hard consideration. If one of them agree to join then I myself, will up our goalie class by let Ospina and Cech or Lloris compete themselves.
However, back to the real world, Ospina will take his routine job he deserve while Shezo learn from him about the serious attitude and concentration. Arsene isn’t going to let Shezo go if the Pole doesn’t want to and he also has long term contract. Period.
No. Ospina is good and will be great. Let them compete with Shezza. Actually, if we could get another Center back to rotate with Gabby and Boss as well as DM ,it will be hard to break that defense.
getting a CB wld be a good move…..BFG can stay 4th and rot and we have 3 good CB to rotate
Yes we do need….season after season….pundits mentioned the need of a gk…now King Henry has spoken…
that tells alot…
No way Levy will sell us Lloris. He HATES Arsenal. He actually called Real Madrid several times trying to stop them from selling Ozil to us.
Cech is possible. Mourinho is a rat funk but I am sure he would let Cech come to us because of Cech’s long service to Chelsea
Honestly, we have gone many years without big name signings until Ozil and Alexis. I will never complain about increasing depth and adding quality players.
I do hope we concentrate on needs before luxuries though.
If Lloris has a buyout clause, Levy has no real say in the matter if we meet it. We’re more likely to get ripped off by Chelsea over Cech since he won’t be on a free. I doubt Mou will let him go cheap to EPL title rivals.
Actually i think monaco’s danijel subasic would be a good back up keeper to david ospina!
Lol at Lloris ever coming to us, like Spurs would ever let him. I’m fine with Shezza as backup to Ospina, the kid is still young and came through the academy ranks. He could yet have another 14-15 years to go as keeper. It’s way too early to write the kid off. Imagine if we’d done so with Ramsey and very nearly Coq too.
Of course we need somebody like Cech. Its laughable that some deluded fans want to win UCL and EPL yet don’t want CECH coming in. A proven GK who despite not playing this season could walk into any other top club in Europe. Why would anybody say no to him? He’s still world class. Not to discredit Ospina but hes not world class, just an improvement over Szczesny. Some of you here want Arsenal to get serious, well its time to make some tough decisions then. If somebody like Cech, with all his experience is available, you get him.
We don’t “need” any more keepers, unless Szczęsny keeps being unreliable (which I doubt). HOWEVER, give me Lloris and I’m more than happy to see Szczęsny go. Great keeper in my book.
Szcz has had three and
a half good seasons as
Arsenal keeper but has
suddenly lost form.
Ospina has come in and performed great.
Form is temporary class is permanent.
To write Szcz off after one bad spell would be harsh.
Especially when so many others have had
years of poor form or injury and been retained.
Diaby 5 yrs, Wilshere 4 years Ramsey 4 years Sanogo two years Ox Walcott Gnabry, Arteta most of this season,
Rosicky injured much of his 6 years
now Podolski Campbell not even at the club.
Ozil half a season twice, Debuchi 6 months this season.
Chambers can’t get a game so do we sell him?
14 players with very inconsistent career stats, yet all kept on.
Szcz has been fit and available for 6 years even now
he is fit and available. How many of the 14 can say that?
Szcz has played 140 games for the club
and in most games has been top class.
Szcz deserves to stay.
However if Szcz wants to play 12 month loan spell
would be the compromise and then review.
simple question, who are we more likely to win EPL or UCL with as our keeper. Cech, or Szczesny? Arsenal cannot be patient with every single player if we want to keep up with our competitors. They aren’t going to wait for Szczesny to improve. And this is not the first time Szczesny has lost form either.
Trust me, Wenger will stick with Szczesny..
Ospina I’m just not sure on. He doesn’t make some saves I expect a Lloris to make – he’s a solid keeper but doesn’t instill that “how are we going to beat him” mentality other keepers do in opposition. When someone is shooting from distance I don’t think “Oh you won’t beat Ospina from there” because honestly they usually can.
Cech is past it. He’s not that great anymore and after a season of no football I seriously doubt he’d be up there. Casillas is now in the running too. Either would make very good reserve keepers.
I’d sign either Casillas or Lloris if Szczes wants to leave. His time as first team is done unless Wenger plays him in the final and he does well. Hopefully he gets his form back and we don’t have to buy…but we shall see. Added note – I don’t want Cech as Chelsea run off. Always feels like you’re taking sloppy seconds.
We don’t need another goalkeeper, Ospina has been as good as DDG since his return from injury; he only doesn’t have the big name..
Szczesny is a good enough backup/competition.
Signing cech will be waste of money as Ospina has done nothing wrong..
And dnt forget the goals we conceeded in d first half of the cson isn’t entirely Szcz fault.. FFS we used Monreal n Mertesacker in defense at a point Mertesacker played on the left where he needed to use his weaker left foot.
With a good defense ur GK will have little to do e.g. Moya of AthleticoMadrid, Courtouis of Chelsea.
Get a WorldClass defender like VARANE to partner Koscielny,
Paulista as backup
Chambers as Utility player
Per as experienced rotational option like Rosicky is in midfield.