Arsenal: Incredible, unlikely defensive display key to victory

All the drama around our defensive situation had many doubting Arsenal. However, the trio in the back was key to victory today.

What an amazing way to end the season! Yes, all the drama throughout the whole season wasn’t what us fans had hoped for, but at least Arsenal ended the season with a positive: an FA Cup trophy. Take that Spurs!

Before the match, the defensive crisis was the biggest headline.

No Laurent Koscielny, no Gabriel, and later we found out there would be no Shkodran Mustafi. On top of the centerbacks, Petr Cech was dealing with a slight injury that made Wenger resort to David Ospina as the starting goalkeeper.

That meant that Holding and Mertesacker were our only two real centerbacks fully healthy for this crucial game. Monreal is normally placed as a left wing-back, but now he had to return to centerback with the injury crisis. On paper, many were saying that Arsenal would get easily exposed, especially with Mertesacker.

Just about no one believed that Arsenal had it in them to take out the EPL champs because of this crisis. However, the back three of Holding, Mertesacker and Monreal proved all of the so-called “experts” wrong.

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From the get-go, Monreal was everywhere. He seemed like a man on a mission. He didn’t fret on one-on-one battles. Whether it was Eden Hazard, Victor Moses, Willian, Pedro or Diego Costa looking to get past Monreal, they hardly couldn’t. Monreal stayed on his toes and let his instincts take over. He was a poised man out there. Not scared of going after the ball on multiple occasions and sometimes started the counter-attack as well. It was a very impressive performance from Monreal, but could it be his last in an Arsenal jersey? We’ll have to wait and see once Kolasinac arrives!

On the other side of the trio was the youngster Rob Holding. Simply, what a player. Coming over from Bolton this summer, who would’ve thought he would be who he is today. He did make some mistakes guarding Diego Costa, but he’s young and that was the biggest game he has played in.

I would let his mistakes slide because just like Monreal, he was a poised man as well. He was cool, calm, and collected. When Holding goes home and changes his pants, I wouldn’t be surprised if he found Eden Hazard in there! What a game to our potential future captain!

Our last centerback put on the most shocking performance: Per Mertesacker. By no means was it a bad shocking, but a great shocking. Everyone (including me), was substantially nervous about having Mertesacker starting today. He only made his debut appearance this season last week and now he was to start in the biggest game of the season! People were also critical of his pace (including me), because guys like Costa, Hazard, Pedro, etc., can easily blow by him. However, it was evident that that was not the case.

Many forgot that Mertesacker is a seasoned veteran, a winner, and a captain. He’s won the World Cup before, so a game of this magnitude was something he was comfortable with. And it illustrated.

Take a look at Mertesacker’s first half stats, provided by Arsenal’s twitter:

Mertesacker played like the veteran we all knew he was. I don’t know what his future with Arsenal looks like, but his performance today gives us plenty to think about.

The way these three lads played really set the tone for Arsenal. It basically told the rest of the squad, “We’re good back here. You guys do your thing and score.” Which Sanchez and Ramsey listened to, scoring the two goals essential for victory.

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Cheers to our defense! Hip hip, HOORAY!!!