Arsenal vs West Ham: Sead Kolasinac should be nowhere near

Arsene Wenger has shaken up the Arsenal first team recently, but still, Sead Kolasinac is too valuable to be anywhere near game time in the Carabao Cup.

Arsenal’s swap to the back four has given Arsene Wenger the ability to flex his “creativity” a bit, and apparently that creativity either does not involve Sead Kolasinac, or can do without Sead Kolasinac. Because in the Bosnian’s stead, Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been not only playing, but thriving.

We discussed the possible reasons behind the benching of Kolasinac on our latest PodCast, and there are quite a few interesting – and surprisingly nonthreatening – reasons behind him being dropped, but the most logical of them all was that Arsene Wenger, in his eternal quest to protect his players, is making his own winter break for Kolasinac.

After all, Kolasinac has only ever played with a winter break, as he did with Schalke in the Bundesliga, where they get a month to recoup and recover.

England obviously does not provide that same luxury and in Arsene Wenger’s mind, in order to make his players more comfortable, he has to go out of his way to protect them, as he is doing with Alexandre Lacazette.

When I heard this logic, it settled me down a bit, because I was up in arms that Kolasinac had been unfairly benched. But it all hinges on one thing, and we will see that today.

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The big question that we will have to wait and see answered is who starts at left back against West Ham in the Carabao Cup. It had traditionally gone to Maitland-Niles, but now that he is looking like Wenger’s first choice, it may or may not be him. That all depends on who he is lining up for Liverpool at the weekend.

If it is Kolasinac, there is a fairly good chance the Bosnian has been unfairly dropped. Despite playing nearly every single match this year, for the full 90, and doing so effectively, there wouldn’t be many other ways to interpret his starting in the Carabao Cup after missing two straight Premier League matches with no reported injury.

The only other possible explanation is that, well, someone has to play left back, and beyond Kolasinac and Maitland-Niles, the options are rather few. So, keeping in the theme of the winter break, he will be given the easier game.

Next: Arsenal vs West Ham Predicted XI

Even having said that, I feel as though it is an odd string of logic. Let’s just hope he is nowhere near this match, because if he has been dropped, then the issues rooted in Wenger’s team selection go far deeper than I thought.

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