Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown was far from impressed with the performance of Laurent Koscielny in the 1-1 draw with Tottenham on Sunday.
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As seen in the clip above, the French international was guilty of failing to track the run of Harry Kane, with the Spurs striker using it to his advantage before opening the scoring at the Emirates.
However, that wasn’t the only incident in which Koscielny’s judgement was questioned, as at times he got too tight to the England striker which in turn left space in behind the defence, while the distance between the centre-half and his full back left the Gunners exposed on numerous occasions.
As a result, it led to Keown slamming his display and it is certainly surprising given that the 30-year-old has been the stronger of the two central defenders in recent years.
Per Mertesacker’s lack of pace has been identified by many of his rivals as a weakness in Arsene Wenger’s side, and it may well be a factor in Koscielny’s indecision and general struggles.
Furthermore, the Frenchman has been troubled by a hip problem, as reported by The Independent, and he may well still be feeling the affects of it as there was no suggestion that he had made a full recovery after missing the Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich last week.
The international break arguably comes at a perfect time for Wenger as he will now have a fortnight to regroup and give his injured players more time to recover ahead of the next set of fixtures.
After a strong run of results, the Gunners perhaps lost some of their momentum in that heavy 5-1 loss to Bayern. Along with the likes of Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey, Koscielny will hope to put his fitness problem behind him and come back stronger.
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