Arsenal: Stephan Lichtsteiner impression made, but ignored

Arsenal won’t be losing Stephan Lichtsteiner to retirement, as the false reports indicated, but the rumor alone is enough to remind us of the impression he made.

Not many expected much of anything out of Stephan Lichtsteiner. No matter how good a player is, there comes a point in time when age just becomes too much and steals their effectiveness on the pitch away from them. Yet Arsenal rolled the dice with him, although it’s not really a dice roll when he’s free.

The idea was that he would be a veteran leader that could, in an ideal world, make Hector Bellerin better than he is now. His defense has not improved even the slightest bit since he’s broken into the first team and it’s rather disturbing.

Yet, while Bellerin continues to not improve, Lichtsteiner continues to sit. The Swiss captain has played a mere hour this year, yet in that hour, played out of position and against Manchester City, he showed himself more capable than any of our fullback options.

And yes, I mean that. Lichtsteiner may be in his latter stages, but he didn’t look like he had lost a single step, nor did he get exposed, nor did we lose anything in the attack going forward.

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But we haven’t seen Lichtsteiner since. Which is where this “he’s retiring” rumor came from. The rumor indicated that, since he hadn’t made an impression, he would be putting up the cleats and calling it quits. It’s asinine when you think about it, doubly so when you consider Lichtsteiner’s personality.

The point is being misconstrued, though. The rumor indicated that Lichtsteiner had not made an impression, but in fact, he made a huge impression, that impression has just been forgotten. Clearly Unai Emery’s plans regarding the Swiss defender did not involve Premier League action, because if ever there was a man who earned a start, it was Lichtsteiner.

Regardless, that’s okay, because the Europa League is starting in just over a week, and that will give Lichtsteiner the opportunity he needs to get back on the pitch and drive this Arsenal team, which should look pretty different than their regular starting XI.

Emery has showed a capacity for change, though, with the swapping of Alexandre Lacazette, so I wonder how long it will be before he opts to remove Bellerin, who has been a truly awful defender.