Koscielny injury leaves Arsenal’s defence exposed

It could be dangerous to play with Monreal and Chambers against Palace this weekend

News is coming out that Koscielny has sustained an injury that will rule him out of this weekend’s game and could see him miss that all important game against Besiktas midweek. But without Koscielny for the game against Palace, we will be forced into using Monreal and Chambers as CBs and that could be very dangerous for us.

Pulis loves his strong, tall centre forwards and he has that in Chamakh. This means the likes of Chambers and Monreal defending crosses to Chamakh’s head which may not end well at all. Palace also deploy pacey wingers in Puncheon and Gayle. They could easily combine with Chamakh and exploit the lack of pace and mobility in that CB position.

Then you have the set piece dilemma. Palace have a lot of tall players. They could exploit our lack of heading ability with only Giroud excelling at defending set pieces. Compare that to last season where we’d have Giroud, Sagna, Koscielny and Mertesacker and you can start to see the potential problems.

Finally, I can’t see us benefitting offensively from set pieces with such little height in the team. And that is a problem for us already as we seem to fail with our set pieces and that usually ends up giving the opposition a chance to break on us.
Monreal and Chambers did well against City but they were a different prospect especially being 3-0 down. Against Palace, there could be problems and I’d hate for that to extend into our Champions League qualification matches. I’m hoping the Manolas rumours are true as I don’t like the prospect of us starting the season with no recognisable centre back.

Tags Chambers Koscielny Monreal

80 Comments

    1. IF there is ANY substance to this rumour, then, could the poster please tell us WHERE he heard or read it.
      We can ALL come on this site and post articles that are meant to simply worry people, but, IF you had to identify the source of the rumour, then that would stop them.
      Kos MAY have a knock, but, as most say, I have heard nothing about it.
      After the Cty game it was confirmed he was fine, so, has he picked something up in training and if so, WHERE is the confirmation of it.
      Please, take care what rumours or S….. you post.
      Admin need to assure posts are not made without the poster giving the SOURCE of the rumour, and if not, they should not pass it.

        1. Also, even if he is out for the palace game, we will still win by out scoring them. Too much quality in our front line.

          1. Took the words out of my mouth. With the pace we command up front now I see us as being like the old Brazil teams – they may let in 3 but will bang in 6.

      1. twitter ac named indykaliya reported that boss will not start against crystal palace..

    2. Instead of buying a specialist DM and CB which may cost 30m£,Why don’t we buy Javi Martinez of Bayern?He is not a regular starter and is a beast of both DM and CB.Both positions covered for 22m£.

      1. Bayern play with three at the back now so he gets to play every week I doubt they will sell him. Of topic just to let use guys nomwiliam carvalho doesn’t play cb at all.

        Manolas is a decent prospect but he is probably as good as djourou at his best so I would want us to go for someone better.if we do go through with the deal,we should use this opportunity to loan or sell them someone on the fringes of the first team eg ryo,coqulan….they did a great job with joel

        Ideally benedikt howedes,Daniel agger are two who are experienced and good enough to deputise per and kosc.

        1. I’m not too sure about them playing 3 at the back but I agree that there is only a slim chance of him being sold. With there sale of Kroos they have lost a world class central/defensive midfielder and only brought in Rode in the centre of midfield. They have 3 centre backs (Dante, Badstuber and Boateng) and 4 central midfielders (Schweinsteiger, Hojbjerg, Alcantara and Rode) without Javi Martinez. Plus both Lahm and Alaba who often play central midfield. With Guardiola yesterday ruling out any more signings I can’t see him leaving bearing in mind Munich often play a 3 man central midfield much like the way Wenger set up against City.
          On the other hand:
          19/07/14 Mourinho – “The transfer market closes 31 August and we close our market on July 19. We finished the market today.”
          25/07/14 Chelsea sign Drogba.
          So Pep may change his mind.

        2. There’s no need to lie to promote your own dislike of a player. Carvalho can/has played as centre back in the past and to effect. Also even if he couldn’t do you not think he has the attributes to allow him to play that position?

          I think Howedes would only come in if he was guaranteed more playing time than Per, which at the minute isn’t likely. Wenger does not want to damage the balance of the team to much, I think this is why a young DM will be bought so our captain is not benched for the whole season AGAIN. If Carvalho is bought he can be eased in with cup games and lesser oppositions whilst we still have experienced professionals in Arteta and Flamini who can rotate depending on who we are playing. All of this to prepare Carvalho as our DM for the foreseeable future.

  1. I cannot wait for the game. We will go through even without Kos, Ozil, Mert, and Pod
    COYG

    OT, where’s Leo ? I’m desperate to read some rumours, keep me alive.

    1. It would be great to have Mert back but he may be short on fitness and has not played with Chambers yet.

      I’d go

      Sczesny
      Debuchy Chambers Monreal Gibbs
      Ramsey Flamini
      Sanchez Cazorla Campbell
      Giroud

        1. Seriously ….not a team to worry the top dogs that’s for sure Monreal as cb with flamini or arteta as defensive cover is a train wreck waiting to happen

          1. @No10 good team selection. Though considering Wilshere performance in the last game, I have a feeling Wenger might start him. Plus Wenger dropping captain Arteta at this moment is unthinkable.

            I think Wenger will line up the team like this:

            Sczesny
            Debuchy Chambers Monreal Gibbs
            Ramsey Arteta
            Sanchez Wilshere Cazorla
            Giroud

          2. The article in whole was about Arsenal v Palace. So therefore, the selection was based on that and not the ‘top dogs’ as you call them.

            Naturally a more resilient team would be picked against Man U, City, Chelsea etc

      1. We don’t play 4-2-3-1 anymore. Haven’t you read the news? It is either 4-3-3 or its variation 4-3-2-1. Redo your lineup.

  2. I am fine with Chambers at the back but I always feel Monreal has a mistake in him. If we play a sufficiently attacking team with high working rate wingers (Ox, Campbell, Sanchez) then we should be ok. It is possible the back 4 will need a more defensive holding midfield in which case I would pick Flamini ahead of Arteta. The only drawback is his tendency to give away free kicks and scoring opportunities on set pieces.

    Lets play the all out style, I don’t mind conceding 2 if we score 4.

    1. Yeah, if we score more than we concede we good! It’s still worrying that we could get exposed on set pieces but i trust Monreal & Chambers will keep them out like we did against City. I smell 3 points COYG!!

    1. There’s rumour about costas manolas. He’s been left out of the pre-season friendly. I would prefer him over agger, young & may accept being 3rd or 4th.

  3. I think we’ll be ok……Not because it’s just Palace but as a previous contributor said, ‘it’s hardly likely that we’ll spend the whole game defending’.

    If the likes of gayle and puncheon are kept busy themselves, they’re hardly likely to be in a position to be supplying chamakh with an aerial threat.

    Although there has been a modicum of improvement from Chamakh, I still don’t see him being able to counter the tenacity of both Monreal and Chambers together. As both of our centre backs have got enough about them to do a very good job individually and combined.

    Furthermore, Palace our going to have their hands full defending against us. Mourinho, Rodgers, Van Gaal, Pellegrino et al might not see Arsenal as a threat but you can bet Pulis and the Palace players do. And as long as we’re on the front foot…..Palace should always be on the back foot.

    I mean, it’s going to be hard for them to be a threat to us, when their defending in numbers and hunting in packs to disrupt our play. Worst case scenario, a stale mate !

    Not saying it’s going to be a walk in the park……but it’s should be a profitable opener for us !

    1. @LutenantDan.
      I agree with your analysis.

      WOW!! Feels so great to be back after a bit of a hectic few weeks.

    2. but u r missing one point..they got nothing to lose against us..and after great end to there miserable start of last season they ll be very high on confidence so it is prudent that we dunt take them lightly nd we field a team with proper defence

      1. I don’t think I’ve missed the point at all. As you can see I’ve given them credit at the beginning and end of my comments.

        There performances at the start and end of last season haven’t got anything to do with it we beat them home and away last year and in one game had Arteta sent off.

        Their good spell at the end of last season wasn’t against us but Liverpool.

        I wouldn’t say they haven’t got any thing to lose at all. If they do lose then it’ll be no points for them, a dismal opening game, a shaky start….so there is plenty for them to lose.

        Pretty much the same for us if we lose to them but, even with a makeshift defence we’ve got enough in other areas to decide our own fate !

        1. i ll stand by my words they hv nothing to lose..cant u see dat arsenal r overwhelmingly favourite to win against palace because of our additions everyone is expecting palace to lose..so if they get a positive result it bonus for them and if they lose everyone ll say they stand no chance to get result

          1. so what you’re talking about when referring to ‘nothing to lose’ you mean from a media perspective ?

            But that still works for us too. Even if we lose people could say, it’s not a major problem as it’s only the opening game and Arsenal can pick those points up in the following games or stages of their campaign.

            There’s only one factor when it comes to losing a football match and that involves who picked up the three points and where it puts them in the table.

            League positions wont be decided by how unfortunate or fortunate one team is against the next. Crystal Palace will play us because they believe they believe they might be good enough to beat us.

            They won’t see themselves as the poor struggling underdogs and hope to gain a moral victory as opposed to the three points. You might as well say before ball one is kicked that the game is unfair and heavily biased in Arsenal’s favour.

            It’s the same when we played the likes of Hull, Stoke, Bolton in the past where they stuck the whole team behind the ball and used every ounce of resilience to hassle and deny us a win.

            Was it a case of Stoke, Hull, Bolton employing a rubbish tactic or as the pundits say ‘setting their stall out correctly’. Arsenal were, in footballing parlance always on a hiding to nothing. If they got beat by those teams it’s because those teams done well. Whereas if we beat them they’d say yeah, but Arsenal are the bigger and better club, so poor Hull, Stoke and Bolton.

            As I said, it’s the points that matter, not the politics

            1. u r missing another point crystal palace ll play this to avoid relegation or to get in top 15 again so they would hv targeted points from certain teams and wud hv made provision for losses..while on the other hand arsenal r going to play for the title…losing 3 points at the start or end or in mid season ll be big loss…and one game does makes a difference just check last season table nd look at how many points rather how many games separated mcfc and lfc

              1. your missing the point…..doesn’t matter what their motivation is be it to get in top 15 or avoid relegation they’ve still got to win.

                Your concerned about how it looks on us if we lose……so what if we do.

                Palace aren’t going to pick up brownie points just cos they beat us.

                Arsenal losing their first game of the season isn’t gonna dent our title hopes at all.

                Last season was exactly that………………i.e last season. This is a new season. Why you so concerned about placings and points between teams from last season ?

                No one is guaranteed success, not us, not Chelsea, Not Liverppol, City or Utd.

                We’ll play our 38 games and where the chips fall….that’ll be it. We don’t have to worry about how it looks to the rest of the football world.

  4. I haven’t read any serious news on this Kos injury. Anyways it doesn’t matter, there’s Giroud (the irony).

  5. Monreal did OK vs. City. But if this is not a situation for Miquel I don’t know what is. Arsenal should just get rid of Miquel if he cannot play CB better than Monreal by now.

  6. One minute we’re saying that we can win the title and the next minute we’re sh*tting our pants at having to play Palace with an injury or so to deal with. Proves really that we are light in the CB area. If Wenger ain’t gonna go for Hummels or Howedes then why can’t he just bite Liverpool’s hands off and get Agger before the weekend. We could get Nastasic if we wanted to. Time to pull your finger out, Wenger!!

    1. @davidnz.
      What’s goin mate? I hope you’re doing great!
      It seems to me you aren’t happy with what the Frenchman has done so far.

      1. Hey Usmanov.
        Want us to win the EPL.
        Top striker top CDM needed.
        Don’t think we have either yet.
        But we have sspent 60 mill.
        The team is stronger than last year but
        could be better 🙂

  7. so the last article was “do arsenal really need another centre back” and this one is titled “koscielny injury leaves arsenals defence exposed”. admin sort of answers his question really.

  8. Have you removed my post Admin.
    I was simply asking that, all speculation, rumour, unsubstantiated gossip, like this, should HAVE to backed up, at least, by the poster revealing the source of it, otherwise it is just going to cause unwarranted panic from fans on here, who, assume, it HAS been reported by a reliable source.
    As the post WAS shown as Admin does NOT make it any less relevant.

  9. Its fine because koscielny isn’t injured, unless anyone can find me a reliable source that says he is? We hear a transfer rumour and say wait till its on arsenal.com or till Wenger confirms it, then an injury comes along and we jump at it straight away, why not wait till its confirmed before writing another pointless article on this site

  10. Even if Kos picked a minor knock and Mert is not fit yet we should not be in a situation where we struggle defensively. It does indicate the need for a player versatile enough to cover CB and DM (primarily a DM)…that is exactly what we need.

  11. Bayern play with three at the back now so he gets to play every week I doubt they will sell him. Of topic just to let use guys nomwiliam carvalho doesn’t play cb at all.

    Manolas is a decent prospect but he is probably as good as djourou at his best so I would want us to go for someone better.if we do go through with the deal,we should use this opportunity to loan or sell them someone on the fringes of the first team eg ryo,coqulan….they did a great job with joel

    Ideally benedikt howedes,Daniel agger are two who are experienced and good enough to deputise per and kosc.

  12. wenger will bring a cb grek media belives Kostas manolas to arsenal is close juve also interested but hope we can get it done soon

    cavani to arsenal rumors also doing rounds depends if PSG gets di maria

    1. Found any more twitter rumours on Carvalho? Was psyched, but seems it was BS or we were priced out.

  13. Wenger has had so much time to bring in a CB it’s almost negligence. Many of you are probably aware that Wenger is known at the Emirates as a ditherer. Wenger is irresponsible to dither this time though, because by waiting and dithering he has harmed the squad. It’ not like there is a shortage of good defenders on the market, Fabian Schar, William Carvalho etc. Every season we struggle at the beginning of the season through Wenger’s extreme dithering.

    1. How is signing Debuchy, Sanchez, Chambers and Ospina, filling the gaps in our squad with quality players before August even started considered dithering? Just because he hasn’t signed a DM/CB yet, he’s dithering. Wow.

  14. Alot of thumbs dwn for this but here goes, we are going to get humiliated like last season again if we DO NOT BUT A SOLID C.D.M, no ifs buts maybes every single fan deep down knows it.. Arteta,wilshere are wenger favourites thats only reason they get picked its becoming a joke.

    Soo close yet so far yet again arteta being made captain confirms that. Lets hope wenger ee abit of sense and buys 1 im not holding my breathe.

    1. I won’t thumb you down as within the realms of all possibility you could be right but……

      The defence in any team is as only as good as the midfield and strikers in front of them. If they’re not doing there job to any great degree or purpose then the last line of defence is always going to be on shaky ground.

      What we have to do better than previous seasons is to more clinical and ruthless and not just against the so called big teams but every body.

      What we have to worry about is that we don’t get over excited because we’ve got yet another talented and florid player. We already know that the likes of Ozil, Carzola have easily been found out and wanting in games (and again, not just in big games) Stoke, Sunderland et al aren’t going to be worried about a tricky player with a low centre of gravity and a few tricks in his bag. They’ll just isolate him and nullify his effectiveness which then disrupts the whole balance before the defence has to somehow pick up the pieces.

      Even Kompany couldn’t help us if the rest of the team are losing the battle in front of him !

  15. @uk longjohn, manolos in a bad day is miles better then djourou, if there is one thing greeks can do that is defend. The lad is a very capable c.bk abd more then adequate as a back but also pushing for a regular spot.

  16. I hope issac hayden starts as cb against palace than macho monreal else it won’t be good

    I wish Arsenal would hijack Manchester United’s move for Marcos Rojo he is an amazing player can play as lb looked good during wc or go for howedes

  17. Diego Costa: 144 games, 61 goals – ‘One of the best strikers at the moment’.

    Olivier Giroud: 143 games, 60 goals – ‘Terrible’.

    & there is difference in the standard between PL & la liga

        1. Look at the leagues they played in during that time and the games started. You will see a completely different story.

  18. I have always found Physio room pretty reliable. As of 11.26 today Kos is not listed as an injured player.
    On Arsenals website only Ospina and Walcott are listed as injured.

    This all said I hope we sign a CB this week.

  19. People on here saying go for Agger, he’s listed on Physio Room as of today with a knee injury – no return date, (on going for ages and the main reason Pool want to let him go).

  20. howedes is a sound chioce for c/b he is just the right age at 26 to finish off his career with us and he offers a good alternative to who we already have he looks like a mixture of merts and kos styles but with the added bonus of being able to cover all positions across the back(a slight upgrade on what vermaelen could give us) and also a captain so can lead others well so that all we need is a d/m who can double up as forth c/b and chambers can be moved to d/m more permanently if that is what wenger is wanting for him and howedes comes quite cheap which is good for getting d/m also gives the younger c/b players to come through at there own pace in next few seasons.

  21. @is that a quote from metro uv just used lol,
    Wengersleft it very late everyone knew verm waas going and jenko on loan plus sagna thats 3 out and only 2 in debuch,chambo. Mert not being match fit can be a real negative as No team should be underestimated be it Palace or chelsea,city alike. Defensive signing is a Must most definatley b4 champs league ipensr nxt week.

  22. Yeah it is a bit of a problem particularly if we loose more defenders to injury with a champion league match during the week so yes we are running late with that all important singing but having said that the job of defending is a team job the clean sheet at the community shield is a testament of team work as we attacked beautifully with 3 goals scored to show for it and defended well with a clean sheet to show for it
    We need to play our game and score as many as we can with cambple and alexis and sanagoo gerouid ramsey and carzola and co we should be able to score 6 and defend our win

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