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Wenger explains why he left this Arsenal star out against West Ham

By on April 9, 2016

petr cech arsenal

Arsene Wenger has explained why he chose to start David Ospina ahead of Petr Cech during Arsenal’s hugely frustrating 3-3 draw with West Ham this afternoon.

Cech returned to the squad for last weeks 4-0 win over Watford but after only having trained for one day after recovering from a calf injury, it was understandable that the Czech international was left on the bench against the Hornets.

After getting a full weeks training under his belt, our No.1 was expected to return to the starting eleven for today’s crucial trip to Upton Park where we needed to beat West Ham to stay in the title race.

However, Cech was a surprise exclusion from the starting eleven as Wenger opted to stick with an unchanged line-up for the third consecutive game meaning Ospina remained in goal.

Fans vented their furry at the decision on social media and Arsene was asked to explain his thinking after seeing Ospina concede three times during the 3-3 draw this afternoon, with Andy Carroll scoring all three goals for the hosts.

Wenger claims he was reluctant to drop Ospina after some ‘outstanding performances’ during Cech’s absence and suggests that even with Cech in goal, we’d still have struggled to contain Carroll.

Speaking to Arsenal.com, Arsene said:

The thinking [behind choosing Ospina] was that he has had some outstanding performances. With Petr Cech or David Ospina, we have exactly the same problem in the air.

We didn’t concede in the last two games. Since the beginning of the season, we have had exactly the same problem, no matter who plays.

While Ospina wasn’t directly at fault for any of the goals, it’s really difficult to justify leaving Cech out for such an important game. Arsene was just asking for trouble.

The fact is, no matter how well Ospina has played over the past few games, Cech is the superior keeper in every department so should have started today. No question.

I get why Arsene didn’t want to change a winning team, but sometimes you have to make these big decisions and unfortunately it could have cost us today.

Cech gives the defence confidence and he’s far better at coming out to deal with crosses, so who knows, he might have made the difference today in us getting a point or all three.