Arsenal: Pablo Mari a no-lose situation

Pablo Mari is now training with Arsenal and could make his first appearance next week. The Spaniard’s arrival is a no-lose situation for the Gunners.

Arsenal needed significant help at centre-back. After Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal departed in the summer, Dinos Mavropanos and Rob Holding could never get fit, the former then leaving on loan in January, and Calum Chambers tearing his ACL at just the wrong moment, the position offered very little security.

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David Luiz arrived in the summer and provided a force of nature off the pitch but was turbulent on it, Sokratis has shown his age, his depreciating speed an increasing issue as well as his disastrous distribution, while Shkodran Mustafi has been Shkodran Mustafi, although slightly improved under Mikel Arteta, it must be said.

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Entering the winter window, the task was quite clear: find a centre-half, any centre-half. And, in fairness to the club, they did precisely that, signing Spanish defender Pablo Mari on a six-month loan deal from Flamengo with an option to make the move permanent in the summer. Quite what Mari will provide at a much higher level of football is vastly unknown, but when speaking to the London Evening Standard this weekend, Brazilian legend Rivaldo was extremely high on his prospects:

"“I think Pablo Mari will fit in very well at Arsenal and in the Premier League. He is a good player that struggled to impose himself in Europe as a loaned player of Man City for a while, but he really convinced people being part of a great Flamengo team last season. He is very complete as a defender – capable of bringing the ball forward when necessary and a threat on set pieces. He has good passing skills as well and I liked what I saw from him. In Brazil, everyone has good opinion about him, and he could be a very successful option for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.”"

In all reality, no one really knows how Mari will fare in north London. And that is not just because few have seen him play extensively. Even those that know Brazilian football will still struggle to forecast his time in England because the difference in the standard of football is very difficult to discern.

But while it would be nice to see Mari flourish at the club and stake a claim for a starting role, perhaps alongside Luiz as a left-footed passing option that aids Arteta’s passing-out-from-the-back approach, Arsenal cannot really lose from adding him to the squad.

The desperate nature of their search — and the disastrous performances of their centre-back so far this season — meant that simply adding anybody to the central defensive group was a victory. It almost does not matter if they are any good because things could hardly get any worse, right?

Mari joins a team in desperate need of centre-back cover and help. But even if he cannot provide, the Gunners have lost very little financially and have not exactly gotten worse at the position. In essence, then, this is a no-lose situation.