Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal: Best XI of the post-Arsene Wenger era

By Andrew Dowdeswell

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 28: Matteo Guendouzi of Arsenal in action during the Emirates Cup match between Arsenal and Olympique Lyonnais at the Emirates Stadium on July 28, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 28: Matteo Guendouzi of Arsenal in action during the Emirates Cup match between Arsenal and Olympique Lyonnais at the Emirates Stadium on July 28, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) /
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Arsenal, Laurent Koscielny
NAPLES, ITALY – APRIL 18: Laurent Koscielny of Arsenal applauds fans during the UEFA Europa League Quarter Final Second Leg match between S.S.C. Napoli and Arsenal at Stadio San Paolo on April 18, 2019 in Naples, Italy. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images) /

Centre-Backs

The decision of who to start at centre-back was an extremely difficult one. Sokratis was very good early on but has been increasingly disastrous during his time at the club, Nacho Monreal was solid but also spent plenty of time at left-back and can only play in a back-three, while Rob Holding and Calum Chambers were ruled out for missing too much time.

That left just three genuine choices: Shkodran Mustafi, who is, well, Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz, who has been a forceful presence in the dressing room but inconsistent on the pitch, and Laurent Koscielny, who missed the first three months of the 2018/19 season and then controversially forced an exit last summer but was superb in between.

For his high-level play for the best part of six months, Koscielny is included. It is difficult to understate just how outrageous his performances were considering the circumstances. His partner will be Luiz. Mustafi has recovered well recently, but he was utterly deplorable in the 2018/19 season and has only produced a handful of good performances more recently. Luiz, amazingly, has been more reliable.

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