Arsenal Vs Burnley: Sokratis is beautifully horrible

Arsenal battled past Burnley on Saturday, scrapping and fighting their way to a 3-1 victory. At the heart of it was centre-back Sokratis, a beautifully horrible man.

After the Arsenal’s hard-fought, embattled 3-1 win over Burnley at Saturday lunchtime, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang stated that he had never played in a match as ‘feisty’ as this one. It didn’t quite look that fiery through the TV, but there was a certain edge to the contest that is not always present in modern football games.

Find the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here – Assessing Unai Emery’s first term

In a joint interview after the game, Aubameyang said, ‘it was a physical battle, it was really, really hard. Papa loves games like this!’ ‘Papa’ is his nickname for Sokratis Papastathopoulos, the centre-half who shared several seasons alongside Aubameyang at Borussia Dortmund.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

It was clear when watching that Sokratis revelled in the fight. His one-on-one battle with Ashley Barnes was especially intense, the Burnley striker jumping with all arms and elbows before he then accused Sokratis of throwing an elbow when the two were entangled on the floor after Sokratis tried to shield the ball out for a throw-in with Barnes all over his back. As Sokratis seemingly rugby tackles Barnes, inciting a rather ferocious reaction, it became obvious: this was going to be a battle.

As Aubameyang stated after the match, ‘Papa loves games like this.’ Very much like Ricardo Carvalho for Chelsea when the Portuguese defender comprised a formidable pair alongside John Terry, only with added edge of aggression, physicality and threat of losing it every now and then, Sokratis is a master of the defensive dark arts.

Pulls of the shirt, fouls that look like successful tackles, inciting a response from wound-up attackers, barking in the referee’s face, shouting at his opponents, squaring up to the strikers. All of the aggressive mannerisms that every hard-nosed centre-back should exhibit, Sokratis is the master of.

In the best way possible, he is horrible. He is a horrible, horrible player. And for Arsenal, a team of great nicety and finesse but lacking the steel and bite that true champions and league winners require, Sokratis is the ideal character on which to build a budding, burgeoning defence.

There are few players that I can think of that I would hate to play against more than Sokratis. That is not just because he is a capable, experienced defender. But also his character, his mannerisms, the way his smile is slightly crooked, the smirk he gives when he knows he has conned the referee once again, his willingness to foul to kill attacks, his aggression, his fight, his fire.

Sokratis is a horrible player and it is absolutely beautiful to watch.