When the Arsenal and France international centre back Laurent Koscielny was sent home after meeting up with his French team mates and being diagnosed as suffering from `acute tendonitis` in both ankles, it was said to be merely a precaution and that the 29-year old centre back would be fine to play the Premier League game against Hull City on Saturday.
But now the latest news reported by The Telegraph is that Koscielny will need more time to recover, plunging the Gunners into a defensive crisis and once again raising the question of why Arsene Wenger did not sign another specialist centre back during the summer transfer window.
The boss would normally turn to Calum Chambers who has showed his precocious ability at right back and in the middle, but the youngster is suspended after picking up a 5th yellow card at Chelsea. So we already have the inexperienced 19-year old right back Hector Bellerin likely to start on the right and now the Frenchman has a decision to make about whether to play Nacho Monreal or Isaac Hayden alongside Per Mertesacker.
Wenger has said of the Spaniard, ““He can do well there because he is intelligent, because he has a good sense of interception, because he reads the game well and is a good passer.”
But Monreal has hardly had any experience there and is only 5ft 10in and will be up against Hull’s tall strikers Jelavic and Hernandez. Hayden is 6ft 2in and is at least a specialist centre back and performed well in the League cup for us this season. Which would you start with Gooners?