Arsene Wenger is clearly delighted to have the Arsenal and France international centre back Laurent Koscielny fit again. And it is not just because the Frenchman is arguably the best defender the Gunners have either, as an Arsenal.com report explains.
The manager also feels that having Koscielny alongside Mertesacker makes both central defenders better and makes them more than the sum of their parts. That will inevitably give more confidence to those around them like Wojciech Szczesny in goal, so it is maybe no coincidence that the Poland international was in tip top form against West Ham on Sunday.
Wenger said of Koscielny, “His individual quality is huge, he is a top-class defender. On top of that he has a lot of experience together with Per Mertesacker and you could feel that in the game against West Ham.
“They understand each other well, they understand each other’s movements and they cover each other very well.
“You judge a defence more as a back four. We want to show have big targets in front of us now and that our back four can deal with the problems we have.
“In some games we were a bit exposed because we had a lack of experience.”
Arsenal fans will still want the boss to sign another quality centre back in theJanuary transfer window, in case of yet more injury problems, but with Gibbs and Debuchy in the full back positions, the Arsenal defence is at full strength again. And it was the solid defence and all the clean sheets that helped to put Arsenal on top of the table last season.
The attacking side of the Gunners is stronger this time as well, so will the dream team defence give Arsenal the platform we need to go on a charge up the Premier League table and give the Champions League and FA cup a real good go?
i still recall when kos boss first join….
he was slam heavily by the media and fans here for not being good enough….
Not you? I remember Arsenal “experts” crying “some French guy from the 2nd Division”
Admit it , we are just fans, Wenger knows more football than all of us put together.
Kenny Dalgish signed Henderson for 16m, Downing 20m, Carrol 35m, Charlie Adam 7.5m, Coates 8m but he also signed Suarez for 23m. Because Dalgish signing Suarez worked out well that doesn’t mean he’s a transfer genius you get some right and you get some wrong. Wenger has made a lot of bad signings too don’t just say Wenger knows more football than all of us put together if not we would have a quality CDM and CB in the team right now or he would have signed a striker last winter transfer to allow us to challenge for the league.
what can say after the clueless most deluded manager!?
I wouldn’t name Mert in a ‘Dream Team’ defense.
Kos covers his ass pure and simple, if there was another good strong CB beside Kos we would have the defense we need.
remember Mert retired from international duty because he knew he wasn’t good enough but he is good enough for Arsenal???
Wenger is happy to see Kos back so he can keep picking Mertesacker. He observed that they play well together and cover each other. Then I stopped listening. Since when has Per ever covered for anyone. He simply doesn’t have the tools. He is too slow, he can’t jump, and is unable to react in time to kickstart his static wooden body, For set pieces he always plants himself in the same place on the penalty spot. The only way he ever wins the ball is if it kicked straight to him. Come on Wenger wake up, buy a decent CB and ease the load for your best player…
Because he just won the World Cup and at his age by the time euros comes up he will be past his best were as there will be better players like howedes and mustafi , boateng by then
Merts is critisise because of pace. Garry Cahill arguably the quickest in our leauge has made four defensive errors that led to shots on goal plus a dive whilst playing for a team who only lost once wereas per has made 2 in all competitions.
How many of use have realised how composed merts is on the ball his possession play is second to only jagielka in the prem. he has been ranked amongst the top 5 passers in the entire leauge in the last couple of years.
We should judge per based on his performances with a senior cb partner somthing he hardly gets (chambers,debuchy,monreal)
Statistically per has been our 3rd best player behind santi>sanchez (source squawka)
He does have his flaws though like sometimes playing as a right midfielder allowing him no chance of reacting to a counter attack which is why at times our middle looks so open.
I recall Hafiz was one of the Fans. sign big and spend big guy. what happened to you Hafiz
It sure looks a good defense,but a dream defense?I don’t think so yet.
If boscielny is fit, i dont care CB whom he will be paired with. Whether merte or chamber surely will create solid defense.
I’m not to confident about chambers too often he Looses out in the 1 -on-1 weather he is playing Rb and cb. I don’t think it’s fare that per got blame for skertl goal when chambers was in the wrong posession and reacted late.
Yes he is very young and perhaps suffering from over exposure in the first team
dis is no dream defence …I was shivering in d last few moments of west ham vs arsenal yaa but I understand ur point …its d best we have