Arsenal: Sokratis becoming a master of the emotional

Arsenal fans have long craved for a little fire from their club, and it’s looking like that fire is exactly what powers Sokratis through performances like he had against Chelsea.

I don’t know of anyone who predicted a clean sheet against Chelsea, and anyone that did likely had misgivings when they saw that Arsenal had a back four, with Sead Kolasinac playing fullback. It didn’t feel like the kind of match that the Gunners could keep a zero on, but lo and behold they did.

I can’t stop gushing about this defense, and while my Koscielny gush-piece is still forthcoming, the Sokratis one is here, because not only was Sokratis a stalwart defender and a rock at the back, but he was a firecharger throughout.

It’s beginning to look more and more like the whenever Sokratis gets emotionally involved in a match, he is bound to have a good one. And he wasn’t flying into tackles or anything, he was playing smart, but he was playing with so much heart and passion that he looked to be the conduit of the energy for this club.

Against Chelsea, Sokratis was as fired up as ever, and coincidentally, it was also his best match. And I don’t mean fired up as in wrestling other players to the ground in headlocks (although that’s nice too), I mean fired up as in pumped over his own successes.

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He had one hell of a whipped in ball for an assist to Koscielny on the second goal and he was already celebrating the goal as soon as he kicked the ball, as if willing it into the back of the net. Maybe it was he who should get credit for the shouldergoal.

Later in the match, when Chelsea were putting the pressure on, Sokratis put a fantastic tackle on Willian and began whooping as if he had scored a goal himself.

This is a player that surfs on his emotions and when they are directed as positively as they were on the day against Chelsea, it makes one heck of a difference, as we all could see. And Koscielny was no slouch in that department as well, they were both fantastic.

This was by far the best defensive outing of the season and it paid off with a clean sheet, but the real takeaway was just how well this centerback pairing worked all of a sudden, and the enthusiasm that they both carried with them throughout.