Just like all the Arsenal fans and Arsene Wenger, Laurent Koscielny is keeping his fingers crossed that 2015 will see Arsenal have a lot easier time of it on the injury front. The France international star is only just back from his own spell in the treatment room and is obviously very keen to make up for lost time.
The centre back explained to Arsenal Player that as well as knowing that being out of action is leaving his team mates and manager with a problem to deal with, especially when the Gunners have had so many out of action at the same time, it was really tough on a personal level.
Koscielny said, “For players it’s very important to be on the pitch. I spent a long time without football and it was very hard for me to stay and watch my team play. I’m very happy to come back with my team-mates on the pitch and to play football.”
You could see just how much the Frenchman was glad to be back as put himself about and was a huge reason why Arsenal held on for the win at West Ham. And it was a game that Koscielny clearly enjoyed. He is one of those old school kind of defenders that just loves to defend and Arsenal really need that.
Of the game he said, ““[West Ham] was not an easy game, it was a tough game. It was an English game because it was box-to-box and I think the last 20 minutes was amazing because each team tried to win the game.
“At the back we needed to be focused on our job and I think we did well. During this period over Christmas it’s very important to win and we did well with three wins, so we need to keep this going and keep focused for the New Year.”
Without blowing his own trumpet too much, Koscielny knows that the Gunners have struggled with his and other players’ absences, but he is confident that things are on the up for the Arsenal going into the new year.
The defender continued, “Now the players who have been injured are coming back so it’s good for the team when you have all the players with you and fit. We have a bigger squad so I hope we will not have a lot of injuries in 2015 and we can finish this season well.”
Let’s hope so. As long as Koscielny stays fit, though, it seems certain that Arsenal be letting in a lot fewer goals at least.