Arsenal Vs Palace: 5 key players to watch — Please score soon

3. Laurent Koscielny

Arsenal cannot defend. That much has been made clear. It does not matter the personnel; it does not matter the system, the shape, the structure or the strategy; it does not even matter the opposition. They just cannot defend, and many of the mistakes that they make are not because of a lack of ability. They are because of communicational, positional, or decisional errors.

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Now, there is no one player that can fix that. There is no magic wand to swish that suddenly banishes all of their troubles away. But the return of Laurent Koscielny, the team captain, in Per Mertesacker’s stead, the most experienced and best defender in the starting XI, and the man who Wenger trusts greatly, will certainly help stem the tide.

Koscielny himself has not been playing at his usual high level. Seemingly, years of playing on a bum Achilles are catching up with him and he is beginning to feel the effects. But he will still offer a greater assurance, confidence, and calmness at the heart of a defence that’s vulnerabilities have been exploited time and time again.

Palace are a team that most definitely pose an attacking threat. Wilfried Zaha is one of the more challenging wingers to contain, Yohan Cabaye has quality from deep that can open up teams; Christian Benteke is always a handful thanks to his size, his power, and his overall physicality. Arsenal will need Koscielny to return and return at his best. Speaking of the big Belgian…