Arsenal: Diminishing Laurent Koscielny influence should be welcomed

Arsenal used to live and die by the presence of Laurent Koscielny, but now that he has fallen off that pedestal, we should be taking it as a welcome sign.

Arsenal used to have a gross attacking dependence on Robin van Persie and that transferred to a dependence on Olivier Giroud. If we were going to score, they were going to have to score. If they didn’t we didn’t.

This dependency was also seen in the defense. Laurent Koscielny was everything. Switching to the back three alleviated that a bit, as did the arrival of Shkodran Mustafi. Now, we have switched back into the back four, where you would assume that we’d again live and die by the French defender.

Only we aren’t. There have been times this year where Koscielny has been pretty poor and while the defense has suffered, it wasn’t much different with him, as he was unable to change the fortunes of the club.

It may seem like a bad thing, that our best defender is losing his influence, but in truth, I only see it as a positive. And it goes hand-in-hand with the club’s new prerogative of not governing by emotion.

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It used to be that when star players started declining, I’d get such a sense of dread, because Wenger would insist on playing them anyway. Theo Walcott, Nacho Monreal (pre superhero days), it was a place earned by loyalty to the club, not by potency.

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Koscielny was always going to be the same. Only now, I have a lot of faith that Wenger will not allow this to happen anymore. If Koscielny’s form falters, so to will his consistent spot in the starting XI.

Expanding on that, I have to believe that this diminishing influence – which, I actually think Mustafi has taken over top defender on the club, but I’ll save that theory for another day – is what is going to help the club go after a more demonstrative defender in the summer. If Koscielny was still in his prime, I could see the club, even in its new, willing state, steering towards maybe a Daniele Rugani – someone young and unproven.

Whereas, if this is seen more as a replacement than a shoring up of reinforcements, we are bound to get a better player.

Even if Koscielny does’t need to get directly replaced yet, I’m grateful that the defense has not been so dependent on his form. They’ve been universally terrible with or without and they’ve found success with and without. Consider when Mustafi, Rob Holding and Calum Chambers shut down Chelsea, for instance.

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This is great, and it carries on my thematic Arsenal writing as of late – don’t let one person have too much power, because you’re only contributing to your own demise.

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