Why Mertesacker and Koscielny Is Arsenal’s Best Centre-Back Partnership

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Arsenal are a side desperately searching for defensive security. After two consecutive clean sheets against Everton and Watford, they have since conceded four goals in two games.

Poor defending has cost them four points in the last fortnight, and Arsene Wenger must now be considering a recall for Per Mertesacker.

Mertesacker has been an unused substitute in each of the last five games. The German was last named in the starting XI for the FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Watford. It seems he was made one of the scapegoats for that particular result, with Gabriel Paulista drafted in as his replacement.

It’s somewhat surprising to see Mertesacker on the sidelines. Not only has he worn the captain’s armband for most of this campaign, but his partnership with Laurent Koscielny has been one of the key components of the Arsenal team for several seasons now. At one stage, Koscielny and Mertesacker went for more than two years without suffering defeat when playing 90 minutes as a pair, per the Daily Mail’s Sami Mokbel. 

As reported by the Sun’s Mark Irwin, Mertesacker eulogised about the understanding he and the Frenchman had developed: 

We know each other much …

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