Ever since the beginning of the season, Arsenal have been plagued with injuries to our defenders, and we rarely get a settled back three (or four) for a run of games. But since we brought in Rob Holding to team up with Sokratis and Mustafi we have looked so much stronger at the back.
Sokratis and Mustafi have both spent some time on the sidelines and of course Laurent Koscielny has missed all the season so far and has only just started playing for the reserves again, and young Mavropanos was doing well before he got some sort of groin stain and is still yet to return to training or start a game yet. So it was little surprise that it was Rob Holding who went down against Man United yesterday. There were some reports this morning that he could be out for the season, but Unai Emery prefers to wait for the doctors report. He said on Arsenal.com: “The worst for us today was the news with Rob Holding. We are going to wait for what the doctor tells us but it is maybe a big injury. We are going to wait, it is his knee. The other is Aaron Ramsey, but it is a small injury with him.”
It is a big shame, because along with Sokratis he has been one of our most consistent players, and it is now debatable whether we will even be able to have three at the back. We can hope that Koscielny will be able to play soon but he will need match fitness first. Monreal can play as a centre-back too, but his hamstring seems to be taking forever to fix itself. I don’t think we can count on Mavropanos for at least the next month either.
How do you think we could line up with our new 5 at the back formation without Holding in there?
Admin