Unai Emery says that Laurent Koscielny is close to full fitness and that the Frenchman will likely be given match action when his squad reassembles after the upcoming Interlull.
The Frenchman returned to first team training three weeks ago having been sidelined with a ruptured Achilles since May.
It’s been a tough six months for the centre-back who admitted he nearly left the club following Arsene Wenger’s departure in the summer and that he found his country’s victory at the World Cup difficult to swallow given his absence from Didier Deschamps squad.
Now on the mend, Emery says the club are managing Koscielny’s return with ‘calmness’.
“The most important is how he’s feeling every day,” the Spaniard told his pre-Sporting Lisbon press conference.
“He can feel better in each training with us and for him. With calmness, he’s nearer, closer to being with us in the competitive games.
“At the moment, we are happy with him. He is feeling well and after [some] months without every training with the team, I think the most important thing is he is every day with us and getting better every day.
“We are going to think after the international break how we can continue working and how he can start playing games.”
Koscielny has certainly been a fantastic servant to the club and on his day, he is one of the best defenders in the Premier League, however, he’s got a lot to prove in the coming weeks.
With age against him and a new playing style to get to know, it’ll be interesting to see how he copes with life under Emery.
The boss also provided an update on the other missing defenders, including Nacho Monreal and Dinos Mavropanos.
” At the moment, we are continuing with the injuries of Mavropanos who is also working with us but also not to start playing with us.
“Laurent Koscielny too, but he is getting better in each training with us.
“And then Nacho, we are with him in a very precautionary moment because we don’t want to repeat the same injury.
“At the moment he is starting to train but not with us [for all] and for tomorrow he isn’t in the group.”
Love Kos and good to hear he may be back after the international break.
Holding, Sokratis and Mustafi have been decent this season (given the unbeaten run) but good to have another class player in contention.
Mustafi and decent :0 ..then holding and papa are being excellent.
Watch the Liverpool match again. Mustafi was a lot better than “decent.”
In fairness he ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous…
Good Afternoon
I mean, I won’t bank on Koscielny. Any availability from the old stalwart will be a massive plus. Probably ease him back with the Carabao cup or up coming FA cup early rounds. But with Mavropanos and his groin issue (Sokratis still having issues), we could well do with another option at Cback. Mustafi and Holding need to continue their partnership and work on deficiencies. BUT encouraging stats from Liverpool match : Duels Won (%) : Mustafi (90)/ Holding (70) Aerial Duels Won (%) : Mustafi (83.3)/ Holding (75) Clearances : Mustafi (9)/ Holding (7) Intercepts : Mustafi (5)/ Holding… Read more »
This is a almost a carbon copy of your comments in the Bould story, not a criticism, just an observation that I’m unsure it is necessary; your opinions may diverge.
In addition it is considered good practice to reference statistics provided by others, just in case it should appear you are nicking their work; speaking from personal experience, I was pissed when someone did it to me.
Until I see differently, Koscielny is still the best central defender at arsenal. I also don’t think we need to buy a central defender in the transfer market. Holding and Mavropanos are the future central defensive pairing at Arsenal.
The most pressing need right now is at left-back. I feel Monreal’s body is beginning to breakdown due to age and Kolasinac hasn’t been convincing defensively
even if kola was the assured lb for the next 2 seasons, i would still say with nacho ageing we need to look at another.
so given you are right, he hasnt impressed as much as his hype, we deffinately need to.