Arsenal vs Machester United: Laurent Koscielny 2.0 needed

Arsenal need another stalwart defensive performance from the unit as a whole against Manchester United, meaning Laurent Koscielny 2.0 is desperately needed.

In case you haven’t been following Pain in the Arsenal recently, or just my articles in general, I have spent a good deal of time gushing over this defense, and how well they played against Chelsea. But I also have been consistently pointing out that we defended pretty well against West Ham too, we just didn’t attack worth anything.

Laurent Koscielny has been at the heart of this. In the back three against West Ham and in the back two against Chelsea, the Boss has been captaining the club to defensive greatness, which is so shocking that I keep having to remind myself that it did, in fact, happen.

But while it did indeed happen, Manchester United provides a different kind of threat. Because they actually have a striker.

Chelsea didn’t. Now, granted, when they did, the Gunners still held them silent, but United will have Rashford and/or Lukaku, both of whom are actual strikers.

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Nothing makes me more nervous than asking a player or a unit (such as the defense) to continue to prove my faith correct. I have seen them bully Chelsea and stand strong against West Ham, but twice if a coincidence, as they say. Three times is the real deal.

But that’s a big ask. We have not been in a good state defensively for going on two years now. And the only thing that has changed is that Koscielny is back. Forgive me if that makes me nervous; if that makes my optimism feel flimsy as all hell.

If we stand strong against Manchester United and defend as a cohesive unit, it will largely be thanks to the reincarnation of Koscielny, who has been finding his footing again after his ACL injury last season that kept him out well into this year. And if we can stand strong against United, I’ll be prepared to say that Koscielny is, in fact, the difference maker, and that he is building a sort of wall out of the rubble that this defense has become.

It’s a big ask. Koscielny had his own problems last year, and we are essentially counting on his injury being the thing that changed his perspective and got him into a better place for the here and now. But it wouldn’t be the first time that something like that has happened.