Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has defended his choice to start David Ospina over Petr Cech in their 3-2 Champions League loss to Olympiakos, according to reports from Sky Sports.
Cech has been the Gunners’ number one shot-stopper in the Premier League this season, with Ospina being handed cup games by the manager.
However, the Colombia international’s mishandling of the ball from a corner resulted in him scoring an own goal, which was the second of three goals he conceded on the night.
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Despite the error, Wenger has backed the decision to pick Ospina over Cech, and now knows that his side will need at least one good result in two games against Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich to progress from the group stages.
"I make the decisions and the selections for the team and am responsible for it," he said. "And I know many things that maybe you do not know and that you ignore.
"You cannot select a team by making a poll before the game and get everybody's opinion. Ospina played 19 games last year, kept 14 clean sheets, last week at Tottenham he had a fantastic game. No 'keeper is mistake free. It could have happened to Cech as well, that's part of it.
"I don't give you why, I do not have to sit here and give you any explanation about every decision I make. You are capable to judge what I do and I leave you to that.
"He [Cech] had a slight alert before the game at Leicester, I didn't want to take a gamble, but it's not because of that that we lost the game. It's a farce."
The Frenchman went on to add that Olympiakos were lucky to win the tie, but admitted that his team were not at their best defensively.
"We lacked a bit of concentration," he continued. "We played against an Olympiakos side who defended really well, but there was a bit of bad luck as well because they had four shots on target and they scored three goals, and that happens once out of 100 games in the Champions League."
Arsenal will now need to turn their focus towards Sunday’s big Premier League clash against Manchester United, with the Red Devils currently top of the table.
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