Arsenal: Konstantinos Mavropanos will be better for it

Konstantinos Mavropanos suffered an ugly sending off in Arsenal’s 3-1 loss to Leicester City after just 15 minutes. He will, however, be a better player because of it.

It was a bad mistake by Konstantinos Mavropanos. There is no getting away that fact. It likely cost Arsenal the result, given that they had to play the remaining 75 minutes against a pacy and athletic Leicester City with ten men, and marred his mightily impressive first two starts for the club.

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But it was just that, a mistake. An error in a single moment that, while shocking in and of itself, does not necessarily point to a greater, underlying problem. In fact, it could be argued that Mavropanos will be better for it.

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When he received the ball just short of the halfway line, almost immediately after Kelechi Iheanacho had put Leicester ahead with a sweetly struck volley, the young defender clearly did not have a plan of what he was going to do. He took one touch, hesitated before releasing a pass, and then ended up just kicking the ball into the legs of the goalscorer. Suddenly, panic mode.

Mavropanos, who had fallen to the ground in the process, then grabbed Iheanacho and hauled him to the ground as the striker looked to race towards the goal. It was a foul. There was no one protesting that much. The uncertainty came with the punishment. Was this chance presentable enough to convince Graham Scott to brandish red? It was. Mavropanos trudged off, with the encouragement of Petr Cech who was experienced and sensible in handling the situation, knowing that he had made a simple and stark error.

And this was a fairly elementary mistake. But it wasn’t the foul. The foul was actually clever play, aware of the danger, hoping to get away with a yellow card, something that Arsenal would have been overjoyed to see. The error was in his play preceding the foul, namely, his dallying on the ball.

Perhaps it was his slowness of thought. Perhaps it was the deceptive speed of the senior game, something that Mavropanos may not be used to given that he has spent most of his time in north London playing at youth level. Perhaps it was just good, opportunistic pressing by Iheanaho. The answer is probably a blend of all such factors and more. The key thing for Mavropanos, now, is that he learns from his mistake.

Errors happen, especially when players are young and inexperienced. While frustrating, they are part and parcel of improving, growing, developing and learning. This must not be allowed to be a meaningless error. Mavropanos must make it do something, make it teach him an element of the game that he did not previously understand, make him aware of what he must do next time to avoid such a disastrous outcome.

Next: Arsenal Vs Leicester City: 5 things we learned

This was a poor mistake. But this is also a 20-year-old defender who is playing in his third Premier League game. He will be a better player because of it.