Laurent Koscielny has tempted fate ahead of Arsenal’s heavyweight Premier League clash against Manchester United on Saturday by lauding his side’s recent defensive stability.
After a difficult start to the season, during which Arsene Wenger was forced to chop and change his backline, the trio of Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi, who recently returned from injury, and Nacho Monreal have contributed to a record which has seen Arsenal record three consecutive clean sheets in the Premier League.
Certainly, Wenger’s side is unrecognisable from the rabble which was torn to shreds at Anfield in August when Rob Holding and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, playing his final game before his deadline day move to Liverpool, were particularly culpable during a 4-0 hammering.
Arsenal’s rearguard, along with Petr Cech, who Wenger claimed this week was capable of playing into his 40s, survived several hairy moments against Huddersfield on Wednesday but deserve credit for coming away unscathed from their trip to Burnley and keeping Harry Kane quiet in the north London derby win a fortnight ago.
After the victory over Huddersfield, Koscileny took to Twitter to praise his fellow central defenders, but with the visit of Manchester United to come on Saturday he may have been best advised to have kept his powder dry.
Jose Mourinho’s side roared back into goalscoring form on Tuesday against Watford with Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial all on target in a 4-2 win and United are sure to offer the Gunners a far sterner test than the ones they have passed in the last month.
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