Arsene Wenger has defended his decision to rest Petr Cech for Arsenal's Champions League defeat to Olympiacos, suggesting the clanger dropped by deputy David Ospina could have happened to the former Chelsea goalkeeper as well.
The Gunners were humbled 3-2 to Olympiacos at the Emirates
Stadium on Tuesday night in what was the Greek side's first-ever victory
on English soil after 12 failed attempts, but fingers were pointed at
Ospina for a costly mistake.
After a deflected opener for Olympiacos through Felipe Pardo and a Theo Walcott equaliser for the hosts, Ospina failed to deal with a simple corner from Kostas Fortounis and fumbled the ball over the line. Arsenal hit back again through Alexis Sanchez but Olympiacos sealed victory when substitute Alfred Finnbogason swept home shortly afterwards.
When asked if he regretted leaving out Cech, Wenger bullishly
replied: "I honestly don't want to go into that conversation with you."
The Arsenal boss confirmed Cech, who also sat out the defeat to
Dynamo Zagreb in the previous Group F fixture, had a slight injury
before the Leicester game and clearly did not want to take a gamble with Premier League leaders Manchester United visiting the Emirates on Sunday.
He added: "I make the decisions and selections for the team and
I'm responsible for it. I know many things that you don't know and that
you ignore. You cannot select a team by using a poll and getting
everyone's opinion before the game.
"I do not have to sit here and give you any explanation to every
decision I make. You are capable to judge and I leave you to that. No
keeper is mistake-free, it could have happened to Petr Cech as well."
Sitting bottom of the group and with a daunting double-header against Bayern Munich
to come, many will be questioning whether Wenger can get out of the
opening group stage having done so for the previous 16 seasons, but the
Frenchman remains confident.
"It puts us in a bad position but we are still in it," said Wenger.
"We have to think we can deal with Zagreb and Olympiacos and we
need a result in our next game away from home against Bayern Munich."
"Some aspects of our game were quite good but I thought we
lacked quality defensive concentration and we played against Olympiacos
who defended very well.
[AS IT HAPPENED: Arsenal's nightmare on Hornsey Road]

Olympiacos coach Marco Silva hailed his players for a
monumental victory and does not want to now set a target for where his
team can go in the competition.
"Whichever team comes here to win needs to know how to suffer,
to put up with the pressure and I think that was one of the key features
here today," he said.
"We ran a lot and resisted when Arsenal try and tire you, we
were very well-organised defensively and had quick response to Arsenal's
goals which is very important."
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