Saed Kolasinac was a fantastic free addition to the Arsenal side this summer, but surely it is about time that Arsene Wenger should be looking to bring in some top, top class defenders, especially if we are going to stick with the new formation of three at the back.
Looking at yesterday’s three in the centre we had Laurent Koscielny (32 years old with ongoing achilles problems); Per Mertesacker (33 and in his last year of competitive football, could he get even slower?); Nacho Monreal (the youngster at 31, but although he seems to be our most consistent and effective defender he is also getting on in years.
Considering the ages of these three you could say it was surprising that the only backup we had on the bench was the youngster Rob Holding, who has looked very nervous this season after his heroics of last season. He could hardly be considered good enough to be in our starting XI every week.
Yes we have Shkrodan Mustafi out injured at the moment, but if the rumours were right he was very close to leaving the Emirates in the summer, and he has hardly lived up to his reputation of being a top German international.
Of course we also have Calum Chambers, who kept Holding out of the England U21 side in last summers Euro Under-21 Championships in Poland, but although he has been injured with a recurring hip problem since the beginning of the season, he seems to be totally untrusted by Wenger going by previous seasons.
You could also include Matthieu Debuchy in our list of possible backups, but he is also 32 and suffering from more injuries than the rest of our defence put together, and has indicated his desire to leave Arsenal on many occasions.
So next season it is fully possible that our present back three are either retired or slowing down with age, and Mustafi, Holding and Chambers could be our first choice back three (if Mustafi is even still at the club). Do you think that trio is good enough to improve our defence? I don’t!
It Wenger is going to spend any big money in January or next summer, then he really needs to be looking for top-class centre-backs as a matter of urgency….
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