Arsenal: Shkodran Mustafi Arrival Signals Foreign Feeling
Arsenal has officially announced Shkodran Mustafi which adds defensive depth to the point that we have not felt this secure in years.
The two deals that we knew were completed (Lucas Perez, Shkodran Mustafi) have now been confirmed on Arsenal’s website, making them impossible to muff up now. Lucas Perez was announced earlier in the day and Shkodran Mustafi has recently followed suit.
The Lucas deal is obviously rather big because we have been dealing with just one striker for quite some time. Even in the era of dependence on RVP, we still had only RVP and very few options behind him.
But throughout the past decade of begging for a second striker and begging for a true defensive midfielder (both of which have now been answered) there was that third campaign that was equally pertinent but not as equally voiced: the campaign for defensive depth.
It’s impossible to forget how often Wenger leaves this defense short-staffed. He has often made use of a defensive tripod. In the time of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, it worked but solely on the hopes that no one got hurt. If one got hurt, Thomas Vermaelen was figured in, but his injury proneness was a factor in and of itself.
Wenger is simply not one to over-staff the club and it has come back to bite him in that repeating defensive predicament.
Last year was another example. There was no clear cut partnership. Neither Mertesacker nor Gabriel was quality enough to be Koscielny’s partner, but there was nobody else. There were no other options. Unless you count Calum Chambers, which Wenger clearly doesn’t.
It’s always been the third wheel of need, if you will, when it comes to Arsenal’s transfer activity, but that has now been solved as well with Shkodran Mustafi.
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Now, Arsenal’s defense is so staffed that there may even be a surplus, hence why Chambers was sent out on loan. When full healthy, Arsenal will have five center backs vying for two positions.
This is a feeling that we may well have never felt in Wenger’s reign. Not even the Invincibles had defensive depth like this. Although to be fair, they didn’t really need it.
While Mustafi and Koscielny figure to take the main role, behind them there are capable defenders in Rob Holding and Gabriel Paulista, with Mertesacker returning in the new year.
Two complete partnership at Arsenal have not been had in quite some time. It’s a feeling that should feel quite foreign, knowing that this defense should be ready for multiple competitions and injuries. We have seen that Holden has the ability to play in the top tier of English football, so you could indeed make the case that we have five defenders who are capable of this level of play.
Let that sink in for a bit.
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