Arsenal: Jerome Boateng a happy, temporary solution to everything

Arsenal need every specific defensive help this winter, and Jerome Boateng may be the happiest solution to the whole situation.

Calum Chambers injury really screwed up everything for Arsenal‘s defensive situation. The Englishman was the bastion of hope that was supposed to see us through the changeover into a brand new defensive era.

We got Sokratis and David Luiz as stopgaps. They weren’t meant to be long-term solutions. They needed to see us through to the William Saliba and whoever else we can get our hands on era. It was supposed to be Rob Holding and Chambers, but that’s looking questionable with their spotty injury record.

Still, that doesn’t mean we count them out entirely, and it definitely doesn’t mean we start signing the entire available world in an effort to have an immediate and long-term impact on our defensive troubles.

I still think we should be investing hope in Chambers and Holding to partner with Saliba, and while I certainly want to see more additions, at least one but probably no more than two, we have to be smart about it.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Jerome Boateng is smart. He’s always been smart. His time at Bayern Munich has established him as one of the best centerbacks in the world, but for his advancing age and spotty health, he hasn’t had as big of an impact lately.

He’s like a higher-profile, more proven Sokratis. And I realize it might not be the best thing to invoke similarities to Sokratis, I will say that for all of his issues, Mikel Arteta may well have sorted him out and found a practical way forward for him.

Boateng is better than Sokratis. He always has been. The primary concern with Boateng is his injury record, but like I said, we don’t need to completely upend our defense. We really just need to make it to the summer. And asking Luiz and Sokratis (and Shkodran Mustafi, but not really) to see us all the way there, with all the competitions we’re still in, that’s dicey. We need proven, but not long-term. We need temporary solutions.

A back line of Boateng and Luiz is delicious. The experience and the ability would be better than we’ve had in a long time. And they’d be excellent standard bearers for Saliba and Holding and Chambers, who will be counted on to carry on the defensive progression beyond what Luiz and Boateng can.