Arsenal: Time for Laurent Koscielny to be Per Mertesacker

Laurent Koscielny is now walking again as he continues his recovery from a ruptured Achilles. When he returns to the Arsenal squad, however, the time for him to take on the Per Mertesacker role will come.

When Shkodran Mustafi was signed two years ago for £35 million, it was assumed that he would become the immediate starter for Arsenal. The price that was being paid, his age, his experience and his presumed talent all indicated as such. It just made sense.

Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast right here

The question was who would play alongside him. At the time, both Gabriel Paulista and Per Mertesacker were dealing with lengthy injuries, Laurent Koscielny was suffering from fatigue after the European Championships in which France reached the final, and Calum Chambers and Rob Holding were still acclimatising to first-team football in the Premier League.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

As the season played out, it became clear who the starting pair was: Mustafi and Koscielny. That was what everyone expected. Koscielny was the best defender in the squad and, even though Mertesacker was the club captain and had started alongside the Frenchman for several seasons, was the obvious candidate. And so it transpired. But that did not make Mertesacker redundant.

Once he returned from his knee injury, which was not until much later in the year, the German took his place among the reserves, waited patiently for his chance to start, and provided leadership and support in the dressing room, showing the high-character personality that he is and imparting his vast experience as a World Cup winner and European veteran.

Fast forward two years, and a very similar scenario is playing out. Sokratis Papastathopoulos will arrive as the presumed starter, his partner will most likely be Mustafi, though Chambers, Holding and Konstantinos Mavroponaos will push him for that role, and Koscielny is rehabbing from a ruptured Achilles that is expected to keep him out of action until December at the earliest.

Koscielny recently posted an update of his progress on social media, showing a video of him walking. He still has a long way to go but it is nice to know that, at least from the outside, he seems committed to the recovery process.

But when he returns to the squad, he will encounter a very different landscape. Chambers is no longer the prospect that he was once thought of. Holding and Mavropanos will hopefully have progressed, while Mustafi and Sokratis will hope to have nailed down a solid and cohesive partnership. Suddenly, Koscielny’s playing role in the squad is not quite so necessary.

Next: Arsenal: 2017/18 player rankings

And that brings me to how Mertesacker handled himself. He was the exemplary support man. He did not strop about not playing, he was encouraging of his teammates, he waited for his chance to play. And when he did play, he lifted the FA Cup after pocketing Diego Costa for 90 staggering minutes. That is the role that Koscielny must now play.