Arsenal: Welcome back, Konstantinos Mavropanos, now save us

Konstantinos Mavropanos is finally back in Arsenal training, and it’s completely reasonable to treat him like the messianic defensive figure we’ve been dying for.

The likelihood that Arsenal find an affordable centerback this winter is not very high. They are already struggling to find a creative wide option within their price range, which is looking like a paltry £15-ish million. Not a lot of solving can be done with such a low budget.

Least of all with the defense, which may well need much bigger, wide-sweeping changes than can be managed this January.

It’s hard to say that the personnel isn’t there. Between Mustafi, Sokratis and Koscielny, we have two proven veterans and an upstart, albeit enigmatic, defender with tremendous capabilities. That’s not a bad array of options. Not to mention throwing in Monreal and Lichtsteiner, two more proven veterans.

But it’s clear that the faith in this defense is shaken to the point of needing a new, young face. Rob Holding was the savior for awhile there, but his season-ending injury has left the hopefulness battered.

Now, though, Konstantinos Mavropanos is back, and it’s hard for me not to automatically assign him the role of defensive messiah. Mainly because he was the exact same thing last year.

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With the defense bleeding at the end of last year, it was the combination of Mavropanos and Calum Chambers that started to ensure that some semblance of order was restored. They played well together and laid the foundation for what appeared to be a promising partnership.

Of course, one injury and one loan later and that foundation was completely upended, but now that Mavropanos is back, I’m immediately contemplating all the ways he can benefit the club. Not just with his defensive abilities, but with that intangible sensation that comes about when a new young face challenges the status quo.

Ideally, that will shake up these older defenders, it will jar their sense of security, and even if Mavropanos struggles to get himself into the starting XI, which he really shouldn’t have any trouble doing, he can still nip at their heels and ensure that his immediate competitors are in top form while Unai Emery tries his damndest to pull together something resembling defensive stability.

The sooner we can get Mavropanos into the defense, the better. It doesn’t matter how you want to use him, back three or back four, because at the end of the day, it should be his job to lose after what we’ve had to stomach all season.