Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny is making better better than expected progress after undergoing surgery this summer, Unai Emery confirmed on Thursday.
The French centre-back tore his achilles tendon in the second leg of last season’s Europa League semi-final with Atletico Madrid, missing out on his place at the 2018 World Cup.
He was also expected to be sidelined for a significant portion of the new season, but the 32-year-old made a surprise appearance at the club’s London Colney training ground on Thursday morning, with Emery later confirming he is making “very good progress”.
“He’s working very hard. First he was in France. He came back to us last Sunday,” Emery said ahead of the club’s home match against West Ham this weekend.
“We are happy to have him here with us, because he’s our captain and he’s showing us his spirit to stay with us. We need to be patient with him because the injury was an important injury. It’s clear that it’s very important to stay with us, working here and showing us that he wants to help us.”
Arsenal have looked defensively suspect under Emery so far, conceding five goals in their opening two matches of the Premier League season against Manchester City and Chelsea.
Welcoming Koscielny back into their starting XI would be a major boost for the club, although Emery said he is not yet sure on exactly how soon the defender would be available.
“It’s difficult to know,” he added. “You look at this morning, he’s running, he’s working on the pitch. The progress is very good progress.”
Despite losing their second game in a row last weekend, Arsenal looked much improved going forward, although they were guilty of spurning a series of gilt-edged opportunities with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang particularly profligate.
However Emery added that he had no plans of bringing a second striker into his starting XI to play alongside Aubameyang.
“At the moment, no,” he replied when asked if he was considering adopting a front two. “At the moment, I think we need to have the control with the possession, with the positioning on the pitch, with more players inside. And after this possession, to do the attacking moments and defending moments with this balance.
“It is one possibility to continue in our progress and in one moment to try also to play with two scorers. In the last match of the pre-season, against Lazio, I did it with Lacazette and Nketiah.
“But also, this position also for the players, they know that in one moment we can do that. But at the moment, no.”
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