Arsenal: Oh goody, now we have to deal without Sokratis

Arsenal’s defense was crucially without the captain, Laurent Koscielny, but even with him now returning, we have to make due without Sokratis. Yay.

Nothing has caused Arsenal fans more consternation this season than that defense. That same statement can be applied to last year too. The difference between this year and last year is that Laurent Koscielny has been a source of inspiration this year, as opposed to the opposite from him last year (pre-injury too).

Whatever the case, we got Koscielny back this year, but he’s still been in and out, as always, due to injuries. Which is stressful and, against Everton, you could see why that stress is still a real thing – it’s hard to utilize a back three when you only really have two reliable defenders, isn’t it?

Against Everton, Sokratis was asked to hold down a back three that was flanked by Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal, neither of whom provided much help throughout the match, leaving Sokratis to be the sweeper-savior in the second half to keep the match from getting out of hand.

The good news is that Koscielny will likely be back, as it’s supposedly been a mild injury keeping him out of the team, and thus we can count on having two reliable defenders again but… oh wait.

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Sokratis will miss out on the next two Premier League matches due to yellow card accumulation, meaning he will miss our next pressure cooker – away to Watford. So while we should be high-fiving each other that Koscielny is back, we should then un-high-five each other knowing that he, too, will have to deal with some combination of Mustafi and Monreal, neither of whom has been a source of inspiration on this defense.

This loss against Everton has cast so much doubt over the entire set-up at Arsenal, but with so many moving parts now swinging around the club due to injury and suspension, the stress levels are multiplying. It’s hard enough to travel to Watford (or to travel anywhere), but to do so without the services of Sokratis make this exponentially more difficult.

But then again, at least he will be ready and available for the home leg against Napoli, where a lead and a clean sheet will be absolutely vital to proceedings.

And, in the mean time, let’s keep up that Samul Umtiti chatter, okay? Because this can’t be what we go through next year.