Every Arsenal fan at the moment is talking about how we are going to improve our attacking options once Alexis Sanchez moves to Man United. (Has he signed yet???). But in my opinion the most serious problem we have at the moment is our incredible leaking defence.
Wenger wasn’t very happy with our young backups Chambers and Holding in last week’s defeat to Bournemouth, so he was quite relieved I think to see Monreal and Koscielny return to the side against Palace. Monreal was the star of the show with the first goal and the next two assists as well (and Koscielny was one of the beneficiaries with a goal) but are they even supposed to be running our strike force?
To be honest, they may be great when they are going forward (like Bellerin and Kolasinac as well) but to be honest it is our defence that needs sorting out this season. We have conceded 31 goals in our first 24 games (and only Leicester have conceded one more out of the Top Eight in the EPL) and this is one of the main reasons we are in 6th place right now. But Wenger was very happy with Monreal’s attacking abilities after the game, but also said he was ‘vital’ in defence as well. “He is an important player for us and we could see that again today,” Wenger said. “When he was out, we missed him because he has experience, he is serious, he is reliable. Of course, it is important that he is with us.”
“He is absolutely vital for us because he can play centre back in the three, he can play full-back in the four. It gives me many options to choose the tactics of the way we play, before the game.
“He is confident, he has good timing and he is an intelligent player and a very professional player.”
The only problem is that the Spaniard is going to be 32 next month, and Koscielny already passed that a few months ago. Both of them have missed many games through injury this season, and in fact Monreal only managed half an hour against Palace on his comeback after a month out, and Koscielny also has a very fragile Achilles. And if we are totally honest even when we had Koscielny, Mustafi and Monreal all fit we STILL let in lots of stupid goals. Things are looking very dodgy for this season, never mind about the future!
Perhaps the inexperienced Mavropanos will be our secret weapon? Yeah right!
Darren N