Wojciech Szczesny will start in Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-final against Reading at Wembley on Saturday but Arsène Wenger has admitted the Poland goalkeeper’s future at the club beyond the summer is uncertain.
Szczesny has lost his status as Arsenal’s No1 to David Ospina, who has started in every Premier League game since 1 January, and Wenger has also looked into signing another goalkeeper in the next transfer window.
Chelsea’s Petr Cech has emerged as a target and there is the belief at the highest level at the Emirates Stadium that a deal could be struck for him. Cech, 32, has been displaced by Thibaut Courtois at Stamford Bridge and he has said that he cannot contemplate another in-and-out season like the one he has had.
After 11 years of outstanding service for Chelsea – and because of the respect for him from the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, and José Mourinho – he will be allowed to choose his next club, even if it remains difficult to imagine the Portuguese manager allowing that club to be Arsenal. Cech has one year to run on his contract but he would cost £10m.
The spectre of the Czech has ratcheted up the pressure on Ospina and Szczesny, with the former determined to continue his solid form and convince Wenger that he ought to persist with him as the No1 next season. Since Ospina displaced Szczesny in the league team, he has conceded 10 goals in 15 matches.
Szczesny has not lost faith in his ability though and is realistic about his absence from Wenger’s best XI, which began after his horror show in the 2-0 loss at Southampton on New Year’s Day. The team have done well since and he accepts that Ospina deserves his place.
Szczesny believes he will regain the position from Ospina and that he will remain at Arsenal, although Wenger was unusually ambivalent when asked whether the 24-year-old had a long-term future at the club.
“That is at the moment – I hope, yes,” Wenger said. “But at the moment it is very difficult to answer that question, you know. What is important is Saturday.”
Wenger was not particularly effusive about Ospina, either, which also seemed a little strange given the Colombian’s general reliability. Ospina has not been overworked during his time in the team but his calm and unfussy style has been a part of Arsenal’s excellent recent run.
Wenger was asked whether he agreed that a lot of what had gone well for the team since January had been down to Ospina.
“No, I don’t agree with you about that,” Wenger replied. “We had many players back who were out in the first part of the championship – Koscielny, Özil, Giroud. They all came back and they came back into form as well in January. It’s a mixture of many things and, as well, Coquelin coming into the team and doing well.”
Wenger is sticking rigidly to his policy of picking the back-up goalkeeper in the FA Cup, as he did throughout the successful run to the trophy last season, when he preferred Lukasz Fabianski to Szczesny, who was then the No1. “I have a line of conduct that I respect,” Wenger said. “The goalkeepers know the rules. They are set at the start of the season. I replaced Wojciech because he had a bad game [at Southampton]. I still think he is a great goalkeeper and I want him as well to have the opportunity to show that.
“I watched PSG against Barcelona on Wednesday night and Barcelona played their No2 goalkeeper [Marc-André ter Stegen] in the Champions League [quarter-final]. Why? Because you need to give them competition as well.”
Wenger said it was not incongruous that Ospina, who has established himself as the No1 on merit, should lose his place for a Wembley cup tie because of in-house rules rather than any poor performances.
“It is based on merit,” Wenger said. “If you have a disastrous game, you don’t play in the next one. But once you have the rule, based on the fact that Wojciech had a good game against Manchester United [in the previous round of the cup], there is no special reason to drop him for Saturday.
“The situation can change again on the performances of Ospina and the performances of Wojciech. We are in a competitive world and you have to accept that nothing is definite.”
Wenger revealed that the captain, Mikel Arteta, had suffered a setback in his recovery from ankle damage after his appearance for the club’s under-21 team on the Tuesday of last week, and he is concerned that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain might not play again this season. The winger is still to shake off the inflammation in a groin.
“It’s in the balance,” Wenger said of Oxlade-Chamberlain’s prospects of returning before the end of the season. “Arteta should be back in full training next week.”