Arsene Wenger Defends David Ospina Selection After Arsenal Lose to Olympiakos

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has come under fire for his choice to start David Ospina in the Gunners' Champions League match with Olympiakos. Although a terrible mistake from Ospina proved pivotal in a 3-2 defeat, the Frenchman remained defiant about starting the Colombian ahead of Petr Cech on Tuesday.

"I don't have to tell why you I picked Ospina. I do not have to give an explanation," he told reporters following the match, per Gunnerblog. "Ospina played 19 games last year, kept 14 clean sheets. No 'keeper is mistake-free. It could've happened to Cech as well."

Ospina is officially credited with an own goal in the 40th minute after he failed to corral a corner kick by Kostas Fortounis. It was one of the more horrendous goalkeeping errors you'll see all season, per Fox Soccer:    

Bleacher Report UK captured what was likely Wenger's internal reaction to the goal:

Considering Wenger left Cech on the bench, you can understand why some are second-guessing the legendary manager. Even if Ospina had kept a clean sheet and Arsenal won, the decision to leave out the starting goalkeeper, who's also a Champions League and Europa League winner, was questionable at best.

Before the match, Wenger said Cech had a slight calf injury, per Metro's Will Giles, but that won't deter some critics. BBC Sport's Phil McNulty labeled Cech's benching "dreadful":

Grantland's Jason Concepcion made sure to highlight the silver lining from Tuesday's loss:

By itself, falling to Olympiakos wasn't terribly embarrassing, but it follows Arsenal's defeat to Dinamo Zagreb to open the Champions League group stage. Considering the Gunners play Bayern Munich in their next match, the English club might have only one or even zero points halfway through the round.

Gooners have grown fed up with Arsenal's inability to get past the round of 16 in the Champions League. Failure to get out of the group altogether will only strengthen the calls for Wenger's ouster.