Arsenal: Manchester City hitting Laurent Koscielny in stride

Arsenal will need everyone at peak performance to topple Manchester City, which bodes well for Laurent Koscielny, who should be catching this in stride.

Needless to say (again), Manchester City is the best team in England right now and the only reason I say right now is because I am a forever-doubter of Pep Guardiola. I also am a forever-believer in Arsene Wenger‘s ability to pull off sporadic, shock episodes of complete brilliance with Arsenal.

So you can see why I’m so stressed all the time. Yet, I’m not at all worried about our impending match-up at the Etihad and I can’t quite place my finger on why. I haven’t gotten to watch Manchester City much this year, but one game I saw, Bournemouth, showcased weakness, as well as a key dose of luck to get the win.

They struggled against West Brom too, unable to establish a giant deficit. And maybe this will show my bias, but before beating Stoke City 7-2, they collapsed on a 3-0 deficit and had to pull themselves up from 3-2.

Call me crazy (it’s okay, I know I am) but I see weaknesses in this City attack. It can be stifled if the defense just stays keyed in, because their attack ebbs and flows.

Arsenal’s defense is always hit or miss. The personnel alone shows that, with Per Mertesacker going to be called on again, but there are certainly moments where the defense is spot on and brilliant.

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Laurent Koscielny is obviously a key factor, as he is one of the best defenders in the world, but he, like other people, has his downfalls. Against Swansea, we saw one of those downfalls, as he was atrocious in his defending. I have never seen him worse.

But being the professional that he is, Koscielny is not the kind of guy that takes a crap performance and lets it consume him. He isn’t Olivier Giroud.

Koscielny is a master of the bounce-back. Which is fantastic news, because he will be bouncing back right as we travel to face City.

I have faith in Mertesacker’s intelligence, but I do worry about his ability to react quickly to a slick City attack. Koscielny is different. He has the athleticism to keep up with the Kevin De Bruyne’s and Gabriel Jesus’s of the Sky Blues.

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Maybe I’m just optimistic to the point of being delusional, but the Gunners can stifle peak City, and they can do it through solid defense and counter-attacking.

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