Rob Holding is set to make his bow in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain this week, following the injury suffered by Laurent Koscielny at the weekend.
The young defender, who turns 21 next week, joined the club from Bolton Wanderers this summer, but has already made his mark on the first-team due to a number of players missing through injury.
Holding has impressed however after being forced to step-up early into his Arsenal career, and even helped to keep Premier League champions Leicester at bay this term.
Shkodran Mustafi has since arrived at the club, and has knocked Holding down the pecking order, but Koscielny has now joined Gabriel Paulista and Per Mertesacker in the physio room, although is not 100% ruled out of the midweek game just yet.
The Frenchman has already played through the pain to feature against the Foxes this term, but this is a different injury, which is currently keeping one of his eyes from opening.
Wenger admitted he is worried, stating: ‘He will be a little bit of a concern. The eye is already very swollen and it is closed up.’
Mustafi and Holding is an untested partnership currently, and Paris Saint-Germain is not the type of team you would like to be forced to tinker around with your starting line-up either.
The French champions have qualified for the quarter-final stage of the Champions League in the last four consecutive seasons, and despite the loss of Zlatan Ibrahimovic this summer, remain very strong opposition.
I believe Holding has what it takes to step-up once again, but with a tough trip to Paris in our sights, we were unlikely to be favourites to win the match regardless.
Can Holding and Mustafi keep PSG at bay? Would it be silly to risk Koscielny this early into the season?
Pat J
Holding ll do just fine..there is a reason he was bolton best player for a whole year..its just a matter of how fluent him and mustafi can understand each other
bloody hell testing a new cb pairing against psg in paris …lol
not to mention both being new signings
good ole’ arsenal 🙂
oh no! this doesn’t look good at all.. so who ll play in LCB cos they are both RCBs?
Holding vs Cavani,Moura,DiMaria,BenArfa ; an Half-fit Koscielny makes more sense than that
Kurzawa, Aurier,Maxwell all out of Tuesday’s match.. Alexis and Walcott should have a filled day.
Can’t Risk Kos hey.
I am not Wengers biggest fan, but if he plays Kos and we lose or something happens to Kos Wenger will be blamed.
If we don’t play Kos and we lose Wenger will be blamed.
Only thing to do is, play Holding and win.
Am I right or am I right.
OT: wish Ox went on loan, he is not Arsenal quality.
Talented maybe, but not deserving of being in squad at all.
ATM there are many OX’s age that ate playing much better.
Campbell is more rounded, better defensively, better passer, better eye for goal.
If Kos ain’t fit, don’t risk him. When we were certain Mustafi was coming, I said our main CB this season would be mustafi and Kos but expect mustafi to pair holding in some games and the psg game tomorrow could be their first games together. If they handle their communication properly, then they will be just fine…