"It's a dream come true" . Those were the first words of David Ospina as an Arsenal player. On July 28, 2014, the English team officially announced the signing of the Colombian goalkeeper. He won the starting spot and won over the 'Gunners' fans with great performances.
His season was more than successful. He finished as an undisputed starter and the numbers demonstrate his performance:
League: 18 games played (1680 minutes), 18 as a starter. 10 goals conceded and eight games with a clean sheet. He made 47 saves, averaging 2.76 per game. He doesn't give rebounds in 47% of shots on target. He didn't receive any yellow or red cards.
Champions League: Three games played. Two as a starter (home and away vs. Monaco) and one as a substitute (Galatasaray), for a total of 208 minutes. He conceded four goals.
In addition, he earned the affection of the fans for his good performances against big rivals. With him on the field, Arsenal defeated Manchester City and Liverpool. He also achieved valuable draws against Manchester United and Chelsea.
The new challenge in the 2015/2016 season
To the surprise of David Ospina's followers, Arsenal signed Petr Cech at the end of June 2015. And from that moment, different versions started to emerge that spoke of the Colombian's departure from Arsene Wenger's team.
However, as confirmed to AS Colombia, Arsenal did everything possible for the Colombian National Team goalkeeper to stay at the club. For this reason, the club sent Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny on loan to Roma.
The support from the club made David Ospina feel that the best thing was to stay in London and fight for the starting spot. And as Arsene Wenger said: "(...) at this moment, big teams need two top-level goalkeepers, and you have to give playing time to both."
The season is about to start, and only then will we know if the coach decides to rotate goalkeepers in different competitions. That's the challenge, to take on the minutes he gets like he did in his first year as an Arsenal player.