Arsenal vs Napoli: 5 key players to steady the rocking boat

Arsenal will need to react fast to stop a potential spiral, but it won’t get easier. Here are five key guys needed to ensure that Napoli goes the right way.

Arsenal dropped crucial points to Everton, and now they have to turn right around and take on Napoli in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final. Thankfully, it’s at the Emirates, but that doesn’t mask the fact that all that momentum accumulated earlier is essentially spent.

The Gunners will need to not just rebound, but rebound in just four days, with a stressful Watford match lurking at the weekend – another away match.

But we all know that Unai Emery will be focused on the here and now, not on what’s coming, but on what is already here. Which is a team that is already ticketed for the Champions League next year because they are, in fact, quite a good team.

The thing with this Napoli match is that we don’t just need a win. We need a conclusive, multi-goal lead that sees us, preferably, three or more goals into the good, because I don’t know about you, but I have absolutely zero confidence in the Gunners ability to travel to an impassioned San Paolo and manage anything more than a gritty draw.

All of that mumbo-jumbo said, let’s talk about who this club will need to step up at the Emirates to stop the azzurri from ending this tie just halfway into it. We start with No. 5.

5. Laurent Koscielny

For as much as we need to score goals, we also desperately need to keep a clean sheet. That hasn’t been so much a problem at the Emirates, thanks largely in part to Laurent Koscielny‘s continued and steady presence at the back.

We saw, against Everton, how much things can fall apart when the captain isn’t there, and I’d care not to get another reminder against Napoli with so much on the line. We have to, have to, have to limit the damage coming from the other way if we expect to have hope coming away from the second leg ahead on aggregate.

Onward and upward to No. 4.