Arsenal: ‘Secret weapon’ can still have massive impact on season

Arsenal should be quite happy with their results of late, and even moreso with the way this transfer window is going, but what about the secret weapon?

There has been quite a deal of things going right for Arsenal this January transfer window. After getting off to a shoddy start to 2018, they were finally able to part ways with Alexis Sanchez, which seemed to unlock the true identity of this team.

In the process, they landed Henrikh Mkhitaryan and look set to land Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as well, adding so many more weapons to the Arsenal arsenal.

And in the midst of it all, despite a cry of ‘lack of depth,’ there is still one man on the bench who is almost hanging out like a secret, forgotten weapon. This man who, through the first three or four months of the season, was in first place for player of the season.

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That man is Sead Kolasinac.

It’s easy to lose players in the ‘what have you done for me lately?’ category, which is why Kolasinac may be somewhat forgotten, but the Bosnian made a serious name for himself early on in the year. His injury, followed by the materialization of Nacho Monreal‘s superpowers, hindered him over the past few months, but count him out at your own peril.

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Kolasinac has two goals and four assists still on the year and ranks as the No. 1 guy you want on the pitch when you need a bit of strength and steel, as those are both of his middle names. He’s still tied for third with the most Man of the Match performances awarded here at Pain in the Arsenal, and suffice to say he hasn’t been getting many of them lately.

This man is a weapon, a wrecking ball, if you will. And while it’s looking like patience will have to be his virtue, there has to be a way to work him back into the starting XI because something tells me he is the kind of player who doesn’t exactly enjoy being benched, and will grab the next opportunity by the unshorn cojones and adopt that same playing style that we saw earlier in the year, where he looks, at all times, like a raging bull.

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You can’t fault where he currently is. Monreal has been unstoppable. But getting the strongest man Wenger has ever coached into the starting XI seems like a pretty important deal. He has, after all, brought so many missing ingredients to this Arsenal side.