Arsenal relies heavily on the sturdy defensive abilities of Laurent Koscielny. So fitness is always a concern, but that’s about it.
One of the major ways that Arsenal has improved over last season is defensively. Laurent Koscielny finally has a partner that allows him to utilize his full range of attributes. However, no matter how impressive that partner, Shkodran Mustafi, is, Koscielnyis still the Boss.
He is the anchor at the back and the most reliable defender in all of England. He may have just turned 31, but Koscielny may have been more serious then we gave him credit for when he said he was getting better with age.
Still, Arsene Wenger has expressed his concerns. The Frenchman was called away to international duty and Le Prof was adamant that Boscielny not play for France, given how the games were completely inconsequential.
Wenger indicated that he would never intervene for a competitive international match, but when there is nothing to be gained, there is everything to be lost.
Fitness is always a concern with Laurent Koscielny. Even with Mustafi and Holding and Gabriel, we still rank the Frenchman as our No. 1 defender and as such, a lot is expected of him and a lot is delivered. As our captain, that is magnified even more so.
However, as far as fitness goes, that is all we have to worry about with Koscielny. There wasa bit of a scare (I was terrified) early in the year because according to numerous sources, Koscielny’s contract was set to run up in 2017. It was in 2014 that he signed a three year deal, after all.
Clarification quickly came in that that three year deal he signed was actually a three year extension. Meaning that we can bask in the majesty that is Laurent Koscielny until the year 2019, when he will be 34 years old.
A 34 year old Koscielny is nothing to scoff at. He is an athletic specimen and defenders typically last longer than their attacking brethren.
Not much else needs to be said about Koscielny. With all the hubbub and rumors surrounding just about every other Arsenal man, sometimes it’s nice to highlight the ones that bring no stress to the table. And Koscielny is one of them.
When you earn the praise of Rio Ferdinand, which he continuously does, you know that he is something special. But we didn’t need to be told that. Not at all.
WE’RE five games into the new Premier League season, and the league’s statistical leaders are beginning to emerge.
There are some surprises, like Watford’s Etienne Capoue scoring four goals in five games, but others, like Kevin De Bruyne becoming one of the league’s most dominant players in Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City machine, are less of a shock.
Here, Stats Insider takes a look through which players have so far been the best statistically in each position from this young Premier League season.
GOALKEEPER – Lukasz Fabianski
The Swansea custodian has started the campaign in fine form, leading the league for punched clearances (7), sitting second in terms of saves (19), while recording one clean sheet from the Swans’ opening day win over Burnley. The Polish international was instrumental in his sides’ battling 2-2 draw with Chelsea in round four, recording five saves, the same number he managed in the Swans’ narrow loss to Southampton last start.
HELPFUL FOR YOUR FANTASY EPL SIDE? Play the game here
DEFENDER – Curtis Davies
Davies has been a shining light in defence for promoted Hull City, and is statistically the league’s best defender. Davies sits top in two key defensive categories - interceptions per game (7), miles ahead of the second-placed James Collins (4.4), and blocks per game (2.6) out in front of Bournemouth’s Steve Cook (1.8). The Hull City man is also second for clearances with nine per game, behind only Burnley’s Ben Mee (9.2).
MIDFIELDER – Kevin De Bruyne
Manchester City’s attacking midfield maestro just edges out Belgian international teammate Eden Hazard and West Ham’s Dimitri Payet as statistically the Premier League’s best midfielder. De Bruyne is tied for the league lead with three assists to go along with two goals, while also sitting fifth for key passes (3.4 per game) and eighth for shots (3.6 per game).
Beyond De Bruyne it is close. Payet hasn’t scored a goal yet but has provided three assists, while Hazard has scored two goals but is yet to provide an assist in five games. Both players rate well in shots per game – Payet 4, Hazard 3.2, while each lead the Premier League in important attacking categories – Payet is tied for the league lead for key passes per game (4.3), while Hazard sits top for dribbles (4.8).
STRIKER – Romelu Lukaku
Forwards are judged on their ability to score goals, and while Lukaku does not lead the Premier League goal scorers’ chart, a compelling case can be made that he is statistically the league’s best forward.
Aside from the fact Lukaku’s four goals put him only one strike behind the league leaders, he also rates well in other statistical categories. The 23-year-old is sitting fifth for shots per game (4), while averaging three dribbles a game, best among EPL strikers, and third among forwards for key passes a game (2), behind only Wayne Rooney and Kelechi Iheanacho. The Everton forward also has one assist to his name.
Here are the Premier League’s other key statistical leaders.
GOLDEN BOOT
Against Liverpool, Chelsea forward Diego Costa kept up his streak of scoring a goal a game this season, poking in Nemanja Matic’s low cut back.
While seeing Costa’s name at the top of the scorers chart isn’t that much of a surprise, West Ham’s Michail Antonio alongside him was one not many would have tipped. Recently called up by Sam Allardyce, he sits equal top of the goal scoring charts following a double against Watford and goals against Bournemouth, Manchester City and West Brom.
ASSISTS
Manchester City’s De Bruyne is currently equal-top for assists, joined by City teammate Iheanacho, who has picked up three assists in only two games playing in place of the suspended Sergio Aguero, West Ham’s Dimitri Payet and Arsenal youngster Alex Iwobi.
PASSES
After copping some serious heat for his role in Liverpool’s embarrassing lost to Burnley, Jordan Henderson has recovered well to lead the Premier League for passes (388) and average passes per game (77.6) ahead of Everton’s Idrissa Gueye (350, 70), potentially a by-product of Liverpool’s preferred high-pressing system under Jurgen Klopp.
KEY PASSES
No doubt fuelling his position at the top of the assist charts, West Ham’s scheming French midfielder Payet leads the league for key passes with an average of 4.3 per game alongside Chelsea’s Willian and ahead of Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino (3.5).
SHOTS
Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic is another player to sit just behind the league’s goal scoring leaders, and a big reason why the Swede has scored four goals in five games is his willingness to shoot, leading the league with 5.4 shots per game ahead of Aguero (who is averaging 5 per game from three games) and Payet (4).
DRIBBLES
After a down 2015-16 campaign, Chelsea’s Hazard is back doing what he does best – taking on defenders with the ball at his feet. Hazard is clearly a player full of confidence under new Blues boss Antonio Conte, leading the league for dribbles with 4.8 per game ahead of fellow Belgian Adnan Januzaj (4.4) and Manchester City flyer Raheem Sterling (4).
CROSSES
Another player at the top of his game under Conte is Willian, who leads the league for crosses (3.8) ahead of Jason Puncheon (3.2) and that man Payet again (2.7).
PASS SUCCESS RATE
Only a handful of players are passing the ball with a success rate of over 90 per cent with Manchester United defender Chris Smalling leading the way, finding a teammate with 97 per cent of his passes, although the England international has only played one match this season. Leading the way for players who have featured for over 250 minutes of league action are new Chelsea signing N’Golo Kante (94.1 per cent), fellow French international Laurent Koscielny (92.8 per cent) and Southampton new boy Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (92.3 per cent).
TACKLES
Everton’s new signing Idrissa Gueye has been a colossus in the centre of the park for Ronald Koeman’s team, with the Senegalese international leading the league for tackles (31) well ahead of the chasing pack of Jordan Henderson, Sam Clucas and Claudio Yacob (21).
SAVES
Unsurprisingly, goalkeepers from teams down the bottom of the table feature highly here. Burnley’s Tom Heaton leads all keepers with 24 saves, ahead of Hull City’s Eldin Jakupovic (22) and Sunderland’s Jordan Pickford (20).
CLEAN SHEETS
His side may have lost their past two league games, but Manchester United’s David De Gea still leads the clean sheet count with two, alongside West Brom’s Ben Foster, Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris and Everton’s Maarten Stekelenburg.
YELLOW CARDS
Unsurprisingly, Diego Costa leads the caution count with three alongside a host of players including Wayne Rooney, Marko Arnautovic and Troy Deeney.
RED CARDS
Thankfully, no player has been sent off more than once across the opening five games, with Nolito, Adnan Januzaj, Harry Arter, Jake Livermore and Ben Watson all receiving their marching orders so far this campaign.
Following a summer punctuated by the 2016 UEFA European Championship (no, that’s its actual name) and the Copa América Centenario, Arsenal were facing a delay in returning some of their stars to competition. Manager Arsène Wenger confirmed today, though, that both Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sánchez would take part in the two upcoming preseason games in Scandinavia while Mesut Özil, Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny are yet to return.
Ramsey had a wonderful tournament helping propel Wales into the semifinals where they lost to eventual champions Portugal albeit without Ramsey who was suspended for picking up a pair of yellow cards throughout the competition.
Sanchez contributed to Chile repeating as champions of the Copa scoring three times in the tournament.
Özil, Giroud and Koscielny remain on rest as all played later into the summer. Ramsey last played on July 1 while Sanchez finished on June 26. Özil and Germany lost to France on July 7 while Koscielny and Giroud were put down in the final on July 10.
Arsenal’s season opener against Liverpool looms in less than two weeks.
Didier Deschamps has backed Laurent Koscielny to anchor France’s defence for the knockout stage of Euro 2016.
The Arsenal defender endured a bumpy start to his international career but the French boss says the 30-year-old has now established himself as one of the best in Europe.
‘Whether you like Laurent or not he is a very good defender,’ said Deschamps. ‘He did have issues at one stage, where he was committing fouls and giving away penalties, but he is good in the challenge and very good at playing the ball out from defence. He has always been a good player.’
France face the Republic of Ireland in their last 16 tie tomorrow night.
Laurent Koscielny sends message to Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck.
Laurent Koscielny urged Danny Welbeck to stay strong after the Arsenal striker was sidelined for nine months with a knee injury.
The 25-year-old Gunners man was forced off in the 25th minute of the north London side’s 2-2 draw with top-four rivals Manchester City in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Welbeck initially attempted to run off the injury before Arsene Wenger swapped the former Manchester United forward for Wilshere, who has only recently completed his comeback from a long-term ankle problem.
Unfortunately for the England star, he was forced to undergo an operation on his right knee which has subsequently ruled Welbeck out for the next nine months, meaning the forward will miss Euro 2016.
Arsenal and France defender Koscielny was one of the first players to send a message to Welbeck on social media after news of his setback broke on Wednesday afternoon.
The art of positive thinking is clearly an important one in football. Confidence is crucial, and a large part of a manager's job is to encourage this sort of attitude, which is one of the reasons why Claudio Ranieri and his breezy approach has been so successful at Leicester.
Managers are essentially part-tacticians, part-psychologists. Their job is to get the best out of their players using whatever means necessary, meaning that it sometimes doesn't really matter if what they're saying is true, as long as it has the desired positive impact.
The mentality of being a successful Premier League manager is something most of us can only observe and speculate on, with judgements about their behaviour potentially harsh. That said; there are some occasions when departure from reality becomes rather alarming. Which brings us to Arsene Wenger and Roberto Martinez.
To say that Martinez, the Everton manager, is relentlessly upbeat would be an understatement of the first order. This is a man who would make Tigger look like Eeyore, constantly gushing about how wonderful his team are and how beautifully they've played. This of course would be fine if Everton were riding high in the league, their success undeniable and their football as free-flowing as Martinez's words of praise.
But they're 11th in the table, closer to the relegation zone than the top four and their draw against Southampton at the weekend ensured their final home points total for the season will be their lowest ever in the top-flight.
Martinez's comments reached a peak level of absurdity after their draw with Crystal Palace last week. Granted, they had to play the final 38 minutes with 10 men after James McCarthy was sent off, but the manager declared a point against a side that have won once in 2016 to be "more than a decent result" and went on to exclaim: "It was an incredible, positive performance. The resilience and hard work, and to be able to be so solid, was great...To play like that with 10 men, it was incredibly satisfying."
Roberto Martinez's hunky-dory attitude is not sitting well with Everton supporters.
It's also worth noting that discontent in the stands at Goodison Park is probably at its highest in at least 15 years, with banners supporting Leighton Baines after the left-back had to apologise for suggesting the "chemistry" was not right in their squad, plus a fan was moved to confront Martinezduring the Southampton draw.
It should go without saying that any manager should be able to go about his job without threat of physical violence, but it's possible that the fans are so unhappy not just because they're watching their most talented squad in a generation be squandered, but that the manager's public attitude seems to suggest that everything is fine.
There are other examples too, most notably recently declaring that he wouldn't sell Tom Cleverley "for any money in the current market." Hopefully someone jokingly bids £60million to test his theory on that one. Hearing Martinez emote with such gusto is a little like watching a man enthuse about a building's great structure and solid foundations as it slowly collapses behind him.
With new investors gaining more influence at the club, in theory Martinez will have to do something fairly impressive to persuade them to keep his job (such as a victory in the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United this weekend, the reaching of which should not be ignored), but there hasn't been much suggestion that his position is in much danger.
Everton might be wise to look at another manager who tends to accentuate the positives to observe the danger of sticking with someone like that for too long.
Before the almost parodic Arsenal performance against Crystal Palace (dominate possession, fail to turn that superiority into goals, drop points after a moment of carelessness, an ineffectual Theo Walcott cameo) that left the Gunners 13 points off the top of the Premier League and in danger of surrendering their top four place, Wenger struck a similar "Everything's fine, nothing to see here" tone.
Each season Arsene Wenger's Arsenal flirt with a title run only to then falter and finish fourth.
"If you look at the top three teams, you will see they have not changed their team a lot," said Wenger on Saturday in discussing his plans for the summer transfer window. "We have to strengthen our squad but it's not obvious to find the players despite the money the English clubs will have. We are already working but we have to find the players and that is not easy.
"You cannot dismiss that the players are young: Alex Iwobi is 19, Mohamed Elneny is 23, Francis Coquelin 24, and they will be stronger next year, but you need to keep a core of players and strengthen where we can. The team is going the right way."
The right way? To most observers Arsenal look like a team going nowhere, neither forwards nor back, treading water and producing the same results, season after season, with the manager presenting the same positive yet seemingly oblivious front. With Wenger, the constant theme is tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow: whether he's talking about money that will be available, or they'll be fine when the squad is healthy, or the players are young and will be better next year, he constantly asks Arsenal fans to believe in a bright future that never materialises.
Arsenal are, and have been for some time, stagnant, a team that is constantly very good but always not quite good enough. This is partly the fault of those at the club who are not strong enough to remove the manager that has got them in that state, but mainly the manager himself, seemingly trying to fool himself and everything else that things will get better, that it's all going to be fine. Of course he could be taking a very different position behind closed doors, but if he is, it isn't showing in their results or performances.
A team that includes Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Laurent Koscielny and Petr Cech are better than fourth place with no hope of catching the leaders, just as one featuring Ross Barkley, John Stones, Romelu Lukaku and James McCarthy is better than mid-table nothingness.
Wenger's words and attitude, while not with the same almost comic unrealistic positivity, are very reminiscent of Martinez's, and can lead to ignoring serious issues as they arise, and thus to stagnation. Everton aren't at Arsenal's stage of inertia just yet, but they could be before too long.
Nick Miller is a football writer for ESPN FC, the Guardian, Eurosport and a number of other publications. Follow him on Twitter @NickMiller79.
Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny admits the team has been struggling with confidence lately and says they must get back to "basics" to turn things around.
Arsenal's loss to Barcelona on Wednesday was their fifth in eight games across all competitions, with just one win during that stretch -- against a second-string Hull side in the FA Cup.
The Gunners now only have the Premier League to play for, but have fallen 11 points behind leaders Leicester during their recent slump.
"It's difficult because the results are not there and we are frustrated with this," Koscielny told the Arsenal website. "We didn't fight like we did during the first six months because we lost a little confidence in ourselves. Then it's harder to win some games.
"We need to get back to our basics, to help our teammates more with defending and attacking. Play simple, with controlled passes and movement. We didn't lose our capacity physically and our technique. It's just mental. We need to do more."
Arsenal are out of the Champions League after a 5-1 aggregate defeat to Barcelona.
Arsenal travel to Everton on Saturday for a crucial game, where a win would give the team a needed boost ahead of the international break.
"When we get a win it will be better, and after that we can play with more confidence, with more movement and some players can try things that before they weren't doing," Koscielny said. "We need to get back to this, and when the results are back we will be stronger."
Midfielder Mesut Ozil also conceded that the Gunners "have to work harder than before" in their remaining nine games.
Arsenal took 25 points from their final nine games last season, but Ozil said the team can't look to history for inspiration.
"Last year we won those last eight games, but we don't care about that now. What's important is what happens now," Ozil said. "I know the teams playing us will fight to take the points against us, so the games will be tough. We have to fight on the pitch and we have to think from game to game, not that we can win eight games in a row."
Ozil is just two assists away from equalling the Premier League assists record of 20 in a single season. However, only two of his 18 assists have come in 2016, as the goals from his attacking partners have dried up.
But the Germany international says the going forward is to keep believing in the team's title challenge.
"We have to work harder than before," he said. "If you see the whole season, we've played very well. We've lost some points because we weren't concentrated or we didn't score. Now we have to fight for each game to take the points."
Arsenal had an excellent start to the season, and by the New Year after winning five games out of six they were right behind Leicester and looking like hot favourites to open up a gap on the chasing pack. Then in January the Gunners collapse began. Liverpool gained a last minute draw, Stoke held us to 0-0 and then Chelsea took all three points (as usual) but Arsenal were still in the title race due to our rivals also dropping points right, left and centre.
Early February saw us rally with wins over Bournemouth and League leaders Leicester and we were back on track. Then the great collapse started. The defeat to a decimated Manchester United was hard to take, but the following home embarrassment against Swansea reserves was the final nail in the coffin. The draw at Tottenham and the defeat in Barcelona have seen the Gunners playing well, but there are still not many points forthcoming. The confidence levels this year seem to have dropped away, which is hard to understand after our excellent start to the campaign.
Laurent Koscielny thinks that we now have to try and work harder to get that confidence back, but with 11 points between us and the leaders we are running out of time to regain our mojo. “We are frustrated because the most important thing in a game is to finish with three points, which we have not done [much],” Koscielny said on Arsenal.com. “We haven’t been fighting like we did in the last six months because we lost a little confidence in ourselves and it is harder to win some games.
“We need to come back and help our team-mates with defending, attacking and a controlled passing movement. We didn’t lose our capacity physically or our technique, we just need to do more.
“We also need to come back to our basics, be simple and then the confidence will come back.
“When we get a win, it will be better and after we can play with more confidence, movement and try things we didn’t do before. We need to get back to this and when the results come back, we will be stronger.”
That win will have to come tomorrow against a mid-table Everton, but the Toffees had a confidence boosting win themselves over Chelsea last week and will be keen to build on that. If Koscielny thinks we still haven’t got our own confidence back then tomorrow’s game could be very, very difficult.
