Arsenal might have lost against Manchester United but there were lot of positives to take. Arsene Wenger handed debut to winter signing Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Many were surprised with his inclusion, but everyone are talking about him after his performance. He had Lukaku and Sanchez under his control and showed probably the best defensive performance for Arsenal in a long time.
Mavropanos looked calm,composed and aware about the on-goings around him.
With his quality performance many Arsenal fans are calling for Konstantinos Mavropanos to start against Atletico Madrid in the second leg at Spanish capital on Thursday.
Speaking after the game, Wenger said, “In training he has shown top quality but then you always have a question mark as long as you don’t see that under pressure in a big game.
“Until that, you don’t know. The big players do better in the competition than in training.
“They make a career, the others – we have many players at our level who do less well in competition than in training.
“That was the question mark and I think he did well. He surprised everybody by his quality today.”
Konstantinos Mavropanos looked impressive on his Arsenal debut against Manchester United
Arsenal legend Ian Wright also spoke about how impressed he was with Mavropanos. Ian Wright is one of the believers that Konstantinos has done enough to start against Atletico Madrid on Thursday.
“He was Sven Mislintat’s first signing and was someone he didn’t know too much about,” Wright said on Match of the Day 2.
“But I haven’t seen a performance like this, the anticipation, the pace, the awareness, from Arsenal for a long time.
“For a 20-year-old to come in and be as cool and as calm as he was is so impressive.
“I don’t think we’ve got anything to lose by playing him. He hasn’t done too badly against Lukaku.
“You could put him up against Diego Costa, I know he’s a different kind of forward but he looked like he was up for that battle.
Sanchez was diminutive around him and he dealt with that pretty well. He’s fearless and has the exuberance of youth. It might work.”
Starting Konstantinos Mavropanos ahead of Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny in Europa League semi-finals, might be a big call but It can be worth the risk.
