Cologne's nightmare start to the season puts Arsenal's woes into perspective

Missing man: Cologne have struggled to cope following Modeste's exit
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James Benge14 September 2017

Ahead of their Europa League Group H opener Arsenal and Cologne agreed to help scout each other. It might be reasonable to assume that Gunners staff were not offering Arsene Wenger the most glowing assessment of their German opponents.

The Poldi derby – as former Gunner Lukas Podolski might term the meeting of two of his ex-employers – could scarcely unite two teams in worse form.

Were it not for Arsenal’s comfortable win against a woeful Bournemouth side this Europa League tie might have contested by two teams teetering in the early season relegation battle.

That may not now be the case for Arsenal but Cologne certainly look a far cry from the side that finished fifth last year, going the opening seven games unbeaten and continuing on their smooth upward trajectory since promotion to the Bundesliga in 2014.

It is not too difficult to fathom what has changed at the Mungersdorfer Stadion. The sale of Anthony Modeste to Tianjin Quanjian, who had previously chased Diego Costa and Wayne Rooney in their pursuit of a marquee European name, may have netted Cologne in excess of £30million but it also robbed them of one of the Bundesliga’s most impressive finishers.

A formidable penalty box operator his return of 25 goals last season was only bettered by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Robert Lewandowski. The campaign before he had come fifth in the scoring charts behind that duo, Thomas Muller and Javier Hernandez. Modesete evidently belonged in exhalted company.

Were Arsene Wenger that way inclined he might point to Cologne’s woes as justification for why it is not always wise to cash in on your best players, even if Modeste’s contract had far longer to run on it than Alexis Sanchez’s.

Colombian Jhon Cordoba has taken Modeste’s place but across the opening three league games has contributed just an assist. The 3-1 home loss to Hamburg was emblematic of Cologne’s troubles. Seventy-one per cent possession, 20 shots on goal but it was the visitors who brought the cutting edge.

After the next loss, 3-0 at Augsburg, Cologne head coach Peter Stoger was in no doubt who a betting man should be backing on Thursday.

“If we were to take something positive [from the Arsenal match], it could help us in the Bundesliga,” Stoger said. “Even though it's no question who's the favourite.”

Arsenal boss Wenger is likely to ring the changes across his side with his priority unquestionably being Sunday’s game at Chelsea. That could mean run outs for reserve goalkeeper David Ospina, Calum Chambers and perhaps even Jack Wilshere.

But while the Gunners can turn to the likes of Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi among their reserves Cologne have no such luxury. So even if Arsenal’s defence replicates the calamities of Leicester and Liverpool they might just get away with it.