Arsenal: Laurent Koscielny Injury Shouldn’t Change Mad Scientist Wenger

Arsenal are heading into a menacing North London Derby and they may have to do it without Laurent Koscielny, but that doesn’t mean reversion.

Don’t look now, but Arsenal has some momentum building up after three straight ugly, hard-fought, gritty wins that required a ton of fight and determination to see through to the finish. It also required some solid defending from a brand new set up, with Laurent Koscielny holding it all together.

Which is a bit disconcerting, given the fact that Laurent Koscielny managed to hurt himself against Leicester City and according to Wenger, there isn’t a really good idea of how bad it is or what kind of time off he is facing, if any.

That’s a daunting proposition, but until we know more, we can’t go full-on panic. What we can do, however, is start thinking about what happens in a worst case scenario where Koscielny is not able to go at Whitehart Lane.

If that comes to pass, I don’t see why Wenger would revert to his old ways and try to mitigate the damage, per say. This new mad scientist Wenger has been all about trying new things and shaking things up and that is helping this team with their dogged determination and resilience. These are not games that Arsenal are used to winning.

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If anything, in the event that Koscielny cannot go, it should be yet another opportunity to hit full throttle and keep this car moving. So you are missing the central pivot of the defense, the last line of the defense, Mr. Reliable. There are plenty of ways to compensate.

Gabriel Paulista, Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi (assuming he is healthy) have all shown tremendous ability this year and absolutely deserve to be considered for such an important role. Especially in this back three, all have stepped up and while not ideal, I would not lose too much confidence if any of the three was forced into the center back role in the captain’s absence.

In fact, a back three with Holding-Gabriel-Monreal has all it needs to be solid. A bit inexperienced, sure. But the athleticism and ability is there.

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Now is not the time to reel back into a shell and panic just because one player is out. Don’t undo the changes in a feeble attempt to grasp consistency. The team needs to know how to be without key players without just biding their time until that key player returns.