Arsenal: Let’s try this again – Konstantinos Mavropanos has to start

Arsenal’s defense is actually coming out stoic in recent weeks, but that said, it’s high time to get Konstantinos Mavropano out there to prove he’s a solution.

Something has happened in recent weeks that I never expected to see happen at Arsenal this season. The defense, that battered, inept collection of individuals, has given me more confidence to keep us in matches than the attack, which suddenly can’t create any chances.

But the problem with the defense is that it is reliant on the likes of Sokratis and Laurent Koscielny, both of whom are on the wrong side of 30, the latter of whom has made it clear that he only has one year left in him, and that one year might come under siege by his advancing age as well.

Rob Holding is certainly someone we can count on once he returns, but in the interests of not having to buy an entirely new defensive unit in the summer, I keep saying the same thing – Konstantinos Mavropanos can be a solution, but we have to find out if he can be. And if he can’t be, then we kind of need to know that too, don’t we?

Now that he is back in training, after missing over half the season with an injury that was riddled with setbacks, there couldn’t be a better time to get him out there with the same goals in mind as we have with Denis Suarez – figuring him out.

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With BATE Borisov coming up, even with the match in Belarus and even with the lack of a Premier League fixture separating the two legs, there is going to be no better opportunity to get Mavropanos out there and get him acclimated with the first team set-up again.

He already showed a ton of potential in the first team in what little we saw of him last season, but I totally get the want to ween him into the first team again this year, injury or not, simply because he is a young player, and one that Emery won’t have been that acquainted with.

That said, BATE Borisov is about as “easy” a match as we will have for the duration of the season. So if Mavropanos is going to be used, best to use him now or be left wondering.

Check back with me next Thursday, when I’m saying this exact same thing, perhaps with a bit more irritation.