Arsenal Vs Crystal Palace: One glaring absence

Arsenal capitulated defensively in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Crystal Palace. And there was one glaring absence at the heart of the backline: Sokratis.

Arsenal lost to Crystal Palace for one major reason: defending. The 3-2 defeat squandered a terrific opportunity to move into third place, but, typically, seeing as this is Arsenal football, their defensive shortcomings rose to the surface once more.

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Palace scored three goals. None of them were well defended. Shkodran Mustafi shouldered the greatest blame for the shambolic defending, especially given his role in Palace’s second goal, where he amazingly stepped aside, gesturing to Bernd Leno to come and clear a ball he was never going to reach, allowing Wilfried Zaha to nip in and score, but there was actually a more concerning issue.

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Although Mustafi’s individual error was shocking, a clear sign of his ineptness at the highest level, what was most worrying was the lack of organisation and communication throughout the team. Palace scored three goals. All three came from the set pieces. That tells you everything you need to know.

Allowing six-foot-plus-monster Christian Benteke a free run into the box from a freekick is criminal, even if you are trying to play offside with a high line, one that was scuppered by Carl Jenkinson at the back post. Conceding another from a corner just minutes after going 2-1 down. A long ball from a deep freekick, flicked on with two defenders trying to head the same ball and Mustafi not dealing with the threat. There was no organisation, no leadership, no players taking responsibility for the situations.

And there was one glaring absence from the team: Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The Greek defender was serving the second game of his suspension after picking up ten yellow cards. Sokratis, as an individual defender, is not completely revolutionary. In fact, he is not even the best in the squad. But he is willing and able to organise.

For all the brilliance of Laurent Koscielny as a defender, there has been one major weakness of his game throughout his career: communication. His best form has always come when playing as a secondary defender, whether that be with Sokratis this season or with Per Mertesacker, both of which are natural leaders and excellent communicators.

Sokratis is far from the perfect defender. He is often overly aggressive when tackling. He can be sucked out of position as he attempts to nick the ball in front of opponents. His discipline is a little concerning — he has more yellow cards than any other centre-back in the Premier League, despite missing two months through injury. But he is a terrific organiser of the defensive unit.

The absence of one player does not completely justify a defeat. But it is difficult to imagine Arsenal being so unprepared and disjointed with Sokratis in the team. Surely he would have marked Benteke or dealt with Zaha. Sokratis has his flaws, but he makes those around him better. He was painfully missed.