Arsenal: Sead Kolasinac never misses a chance to remind us

Arsenal’s fullback situation was a mess going into the Liverpool match, but Sead Kolasinac took the starting role, and boy howdy did he.

Arsenal were at risk of having all of one fullback available going into the Liverpool match up. Bellerin, Monreal and Kolasinac were all supposed to be out, leaving Lichtsteiner and perhaps a still-wobbly Maitland-Niles, or, heaven forbid, Granit Xhaka, to fill out the defense.

But Bellerin and Sead Kolasinac were healthy enough to play, and what a blessing that was, because those two made one hell of a difference.

Bellerin, who had been perhaps the biggest subject of my criticism early in the year, continued his run of good form, and Sead Kolasinac was, in a word, stellar.

The Bosnian found himself constantly under siege by the Liverpool attack, but for having missed out on so much time, he handled the pressure well. He wasn’t a lock-down defender, but neither is Bellerin, and they both still managed to play quite well.

What makes these fullbacks special, though, isn’t their defending, it’s their attacking play. They both possess such athleticism that they can bust up and down the touchline, feeding the attack while not being caught out on defense. And that is where Kolasinac truly shined.

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Nobody sent in more crosses than Kolasinac. His threat from that left hand side is such a blessing to have, as he isn’t afraid to drive all the way to the opponents goal line (sometimes even beyond) in order to find the space he needs to feed the ball into the box.

He narrowly missed setting Mesut Ozil up for a goal when he took the ball about six inches too far, and took it out of play.

He just goes further with his attacking play than Monreal ever does. Monreal has his uses, but he doesn’t possess the same intensity in the attack as Kolasinac, and that was on display against Liverpool again.

Again, we got a reminder of what Kolasinac can be, and again, I am left here wondering how long he can stay healthy.

When we acquired him for a whopping fee of free, I counted him as one of the best signings of the decade, and I still believe he can be that if he can just stay on the pitch and stay out of the way of the injury train.

It’s not an unfamiliar place for us Arsenal fans to be, dreading injuries. I just hope that we can start building around him enough so that we don’t have to dread it so much.