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?