Arsenal: Sokratis paints completely different defensive picture

Arsenal asked a lot out of Sokratis when they bought him last summer, but he has delivered, and changes the whole perspective of this defense.

Before buying Sokratis last summer, Arsenal had four defenders – Chambers, Holding, Mustafi and Mavropanos. Not a soul of those four wasn’t exciting. But excitement can go both ways. They had so much potential and, in bursts, proved brilliant. And yet, overall, the questions still outweighed the answers.

They weren’t a reliable bunch, and the idea was to keep pitting them against each other in the hopes that development would move forward with at least two of them so that eventually, hopefully by the end of the season or at the very least, until Koscielny got back, we could move forward with the defensive prospectus.

Then they bought Sokratis. 30-years-old, a literal rock in defense, who took no nonsense, and someone who had experience to bolster an otherwise fledgling attack.

Now that he has settled in, the Greek defender is casting a whole new light on this defense, and we saw it again against Bournemouth. While there were, and always will be, the threat of human error, Sokratis is as sure-footed as they come. He wields his body like a wall and knows how to keep attackers out.

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He serves as a sort of lighthouse for the enigmatic presence of Mustafi and Holding. Just having Sokratis on the pitch, you can feel the confidence in defense. You know that the odds of a truly boneheaded defensive lapse are slashed drastically.

And then you start thinking about the pending return of Koscielny.

While I am all for getting young guys the exposure that they need to prove themselves, the prospect of having two experienced defenders like Sokratis and Koscielny holding down the defense is tantalizing. If it works out, it could shape up to be an absolute game changer, to the point that we’d have to potentially be in the conversation for the best defensive partnership in the league.

Now, granted, a lot would have to go right for that to happen, hence why I said “potentially,” but if Sokratis plays like he is now and Koscielny can return to his old form, then why not? There is no tomfoolery in that defense.

Then when you start talking about a potential back three with both Sokratis and Koscielny, it gets really exciting, because someone like Mustafi is allowed to play within himself and get forward, knowing that, in the end, the two in behind him are as solid as can be.