Sign up to FREE email alerts from Mirror - Arsenal FC Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

In a week when Arsenal managed to string three wins together in a row, all the plaudits were being thrown Alexis Sanchez’s way.

There is no doubting the

. His industry, ability and knack of finding the net means that Arsenal are better off than they would have been had they not splashed out £32.5m on him in the summer.

and rightly so. People are asking where the side would be in the league if they hadn’t signed him.

Strikers get all the glory while the midfielders pick up what’s left. The scraps of appreciation, if there are any remaining, are often thrown the way of goalkeepers. Defenders, well, theirs is a tough road upon which consistency is expected, mistakes usually fatal, and exceptional performances often overlooked.

In pictures: Arsenal 1-0 Southampton

It’s not hard to see why many people would overlook an Arsenal defender for accolades, they do, after all, have an infuriating knack of looking like a collection of three-legged puppies on acid at times; the comical own goal scored against Manchester United just a few weeks ago a classic example of the type of defensive clown car Arsenal often take for a spin.

But in amongst that calamity is a player who is probably more important to Arsenal than any other in the side –

He's given away more penalties than any other player in the division since his arrival at the club from Lorient in 2010, a stat that is often trotted out by those who don’t take the time to actually watch him play. He’s also managed to get himself sent off four times and score two own goals although at least 50% of those red cards and quite a number of the penalties were more than a little iffy to say the least.

(Image: David Price)

To Arsenal fans, however, he is quite simply one of the best central defenders in any league. What he brings to the defence, and to the whole side in general, is as important, if not more so, than what Sanchez is delivering.

Alongside Koscielny, Per Mertesacker looks like a top-drawer centreback, but without him in the side to cover for the giant German’s obvious shortcomings, the BFG looks decidedly average as we witnessed when he had to play alongside Nacho Monreal for a large chunk of the season.

Koscielny’s reading of the game enhances all the players around him and whether he needs to cover a wandering full-back on either side or judge when his centreback partner is going to get turned, more often than not he does exactly what’s required of him with a little bit of style and a whole lot of calm.

(Image: Getty)

When Santi Cazorla recently named him as one of the three world class players at the club, he wasn’t simply picking names out of a hat. World class is quite a call, a label not often levelled at defenders, let alone Arsenal ones.

“Laurent Koscielny for me is a great defender and there are very few players like him in the world” said the Spaniard. It’s a sentiment you would struggle to find many inside Arsenal disagree with, yet many outside the club would scratch their heads at Santi’s declaration, such is the misunderstanding of just how immense Lolo is for this team.

His importance is even more stated this season as Arsenal attempt to complete a campaign with two-and-a-half centrebacks, a feat the injury gods mocked when they ensured Koscielny’s troublesome Achilles kept him out for a large chunk of the season.

Since his return to the side Arsenal have kept two cleansheets from two games but it’s the fact that at no point during either of those games has the Arsenal defence made it’s fanbase vomit up their own heart that the real Kos-effect can be seen.

(Image: Reuters)

His presence settles the rest of the team, like footballing valium. The collective panic that Arsenal are prone to on a regular basis when they are called on to defend is lessened significantly.

Alexis Sanchez looks like he can be relied on to get Arsenal out of jail at the top end of the pitch but Laurent Koscielny enables a ‘first do not lose’ philosophy which has become de rigueur at the club recently due to poor form.

Despite only playing eight league games compared to Vincent Kompany’s 12 and Gary Cahill’s 14, he has made more interceptions than either of those two.

His pass completion rate is 90%, that’s better than Kompany (89%), Cahill (88%) and rumoured Arsenal target Ron Vlaar (82%). He hasn’t made a single defensive error this season and has made 185 passes more than the highly-rated Villa captain in just one game more.

(Image: Alex Livesey)

Of course, you can prove anything you want with stats and in the end they mean little if what your eyes tell you is the complete opposite.

Take the time, watch Arsenal with and without Laurent Koscielny. If 90 minutes of both don’t convince you that he is the most important member of the Arsenal squad then I really have to question your ability to pay attention.