Arsenal: Let it all hang out – start Konstantinos Mavropanos

Arsenal have a rebound match ahead against Huddersfield, and they need to let it all hang out there. Konstantinos Mavropanos is here, now use him.

Arsenal have had their issues this year, and they have been very easy to categorize – the defense can’t help themselves, the attack can’t create enough chances. Boom. That’s it. Being so clear, it also means that the solutions can be equally clear.

Denis Suarez was brought in to fix the latter. So start him against Huddersfield. Manchester City was a piss-poor outing with so few chances that Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang might as well not have been out there.

Defensively, the Gunners have been a bit better, but not good enough that you can say that they should stay exactly as is. With Sokratis and Rob Holding out, Unai Emery seemingly only has one choice – start Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi.

Wrong.

It’s at the point now where we can’t hold anything back. Just let it all hang out. It’s a new era, players are proving themselves or failing to do so. Let the failed attempts weed themselves out and give other players a chance to prove it.

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Konstantinos Mavropanos has not had a chance to prove it. Mustafi has. I am a huge fan of Mustafi, but it’s gotten to the point where even I am advocating for him to be sold. It just hasn’t worked out. Injuries continue to hamper him, he’s a defender who seems to always need a sub, who can’t stay locked into a match – it’s just not worth it. Let him be the hovering squad defender, filling in when necessary. And let Mavropanos continue where he left off at the end of last season, when he was proving himself to be a solution in tandem with Calum Chambers.

You can’t let a player be a solution if he doesn’t play and against Huddersfield, a team buried in the EPL table, a whole 13 points out of safety and with just 13 goals scored all year, averaging about one every other match, it’s the perfect opportunity to get Mavropanos out there, confident, and in a position where he can make a move for that starting role and save the team a lot of problems going into the summer.

It all makes sense to me. Koscielny guiding the young man, who has already proven immensely talented, an opponent that can’t score – just do it.