\n<\/p>\n
Arriving in north London at a pivotal moment, David Ospina found the Gunners losing momentum under the Ars\u00e8ne Wenger era. The club, then lacking investment, struggled to stay in the title race despite still playing attractive games. It was also a time of evolution for goalkeepers.<\/span><\/p>\n We’ve been reassessing a bit about how this position has evolved over the years. Not all goalkeepers woke up one morning with instructions to become kicking experts. But a change in the role was well and truly taking shape when Ospina arrived in England \u2013 a change to which he had to adapt.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve experienced all these transitions over the generations. Today, our role has taken on a much greater dimension, mainly because we are expected to be much more involved with our feet, which was not at all necessary in the past,\u201d he explains.<\/span><\/p>\n Is he enjoying this new role? \u201cIt\u2019s just the game,\u201d he says. Things change over time, and as he enters his 40s, Ospina knows that tactical adjustments are inevitable.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHaving technical skills is crucial, as it allows us to launch offensive sequences from the back. The goalkeeper has truly become an integral part of the starting lineup: he is no longer just the player who prevents goals, but also the one capable of orchestrating a transition quickly and precisely,\u201d he explains.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately for him, his career at Arsenal never really took off: injuries slowed down his progress, and the arrival of Petr Cech from Chelsea in 2015 permanently blocked his path.<\/span><\/p>\n However, he came across notable figures: Ars\u00e8ne Wenger, wise mentor and leading coach, as well as Mikel Arteta, then captain of the club.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was lucky to have him as a teammate when I arrived at Arsenal. Even then, he was already showing leadership and showing what he could bring to the game throughout his career,\u201d recalls the Colombian.<\/span><\/p>\n So it’s no surprise that he became head coach, Ospina adds. Will he be the man to win a first Premier League title after four second places? Nothing is less certain.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey have a golden opportunity to win the Premier League, led by an excellent manager and with young players putting in exceptional performances. So let’s hope they manage to take this step. I would be very happy to see Arsenal win the Premier League title,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arriving in north London at a pivotal moment, David Ospina found the Gunners losing momentum under the Ars\u00e8ne Wenger era. The club, then lacking investment, struggled to stay in the title race despite still playing attractive games. It was also a time of evolution for goalkeepers. We’ve been reassessing a bit about how this position […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/updatelive.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}