Arsenal: Laurent Koscielny return carries more questions than answers

Arsenal’s defense is finally starting to put some consistency together, so what does Laurent Koscielny’s return do? It’s hard to say.

When Laurent Koscielny went down in the Europa League semi-final, the prospect of everything he was missing was pretty devastating. The Arsenal captain was going to miss the World Cup, which his France ended up winning, and he also missed the transition into the Unai Emery era.

Yet, Emery did a pretty stand-up thing in leaving Koscielny as the club captain, while making a handful of other vice captains.

Now, Koscielny is on the mend, he’s back in training, and the tentative return date could be as early as the Europa league fixture against FC Vorskla on November 29th. Pretty crazy to think that he could be back so soon, when the initial diagnosis was that he wouldn’t be back until 2019.

In Koscielny’s absence, the team did not collapse. It did not shrivel and die. If anything, it thrived. As it stands, they are on one hell of an unbeaten run that the Frenchman has had no part in on the pitch itself.

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As such, his return carries with it such a diverse array of unknowns that it’s exciting all over again. For instance, if Unai Emery can get the most out of so many of his players, can he get the most of of Koscielny again, a player who was once arguably the best defender in England?

Because if he can do that, and stick him into that defense next to another sentinel type like Sokratis, or even next to his old mate Mustafi, who is starting to come around, what happens to this Arsenal defense?

But at the same time, Koscielny is not part of the long-term plans of this club. Emery has shown a tendency to err on the side of youth and the future, rather than present day, so will he even seek to alter the young pairing of Mustafi and Holding if there isn’t a pressing need to do so?

Koscielny was named the club captain though, which could be a statement of intent, or, as Wenger used to use it as, an honorarium of sorts. The questions are mounting, as is the excitement, because even if Koscielny doesn’t get right back into the Premier League, we still have him in the Europa League, and that’s pretty epic.

Time will tell. If the best of Koscielny can be found, then it’s a game changer.