After Arsenal’s draw against Tottenham on Sunday, skipper Laurent Koscielny took the Eurostar to France for international duty. Sitting beside him was Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris, and whilst they were both kicking back and relaxing after a hard say at work, French newspaper L’Equipe were evaluating their performances with relation to the national team.
Each week L’Equipe picks players who have impressed, and they go in the green zone, there’s players who have done ok, and they get grey, and then there’s those who had a tough weekend, who find themselves in the red zone.
Koscielny is in there, and Lloris, along with Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud, is in the ok section.
L’Equipe say that Koscielny was unprotected in Arsenal’s defence, but they still don’t think he did a good job. The penalty is of course pointed out, and in France that will have struck a chord, because there seems to be a feeling, built up over years, that Koscielny is prone to the odd penalty or red card.
It doesn’t help that against the Netherlands, during the last international break, Koscielny was lucky to escape a penalty after a handball in the box.
In January, Koscielny stuck up for himself during an interview in France, when asked about his perceived ‘poor disciplinary record’: “I’ve played more than 220 matches [230] for Arsenal. I’ve only had four red cards, and given away a few penalties. It’s not that much overall, but it’s true that I’ve had good games marred by stupid fouls.
“I’ve worked on that. I’ve tried to anticipate more, but, at times, you have to know when to stand off and leave the ball to the forward.”
