Arsenal lose both Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis against Manchester United to leave Unai Emery feeling the heat

Arsenal lost both club captain Koscielny and Sokratis to injury in their 2-0 loss to United in the FA Cup fourth round, and now face a crucial run of fixtures with a wafer-thin defence

There was some good news and some bad news at Unai Emery’s suitably stony-faced press conference last night.

Let’s start with the good. “Sokratis hurt his ankle – I hope not a lot,” Emery said, before adding: “I do not think it is a big injury.”

The bad came just after. “Laurent Koscielny is going to the hospital tonight for analysis to see what injury he has. Maybe it is a break. I hope not. We are going to have to wait.”

Incredibly, the very worst moment on a thoroughly miserable evening for Arsenal was not the sight of Alexis Sanchez elegantly tiptoeing his way around a befuddled Petr Cech, who crawled despairingly across his six-yard box with all the urgency of a tortoise trapped in quicksand. No, the nadir instead came when Romelu Lukaku’s boot came crashing into Koscielny’s head, midway through the second-half.

You didn’t need super slow motion, high-definition replays to tell that it was bad. The blood may not have been visible to everybody in the stadium but the urgency with which the physios ran onto the pitch was, as Koscielny twisted and turned in agony. If Emery’s fears are proven to be true, and Koscielny’s jaw is broken, then he will likely be out for around six weeks.

His injury is a massive blow to Arsenal, particularly as the club’s ever-growing PhysioRoom page currently rivals Tolstoy’s War and Peace in length. Their defence was already looking thin given the season-ending injuries suffered by Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding, with Danny Welbeck another long-term absentee.

As it stands, Arsenal only have two fit centre-backs — Shkodran Mustafi and the recently returned Konstantinos Mavropanos — at an utterly crucial part of the season. They travel to Manchester City next weekend, before both legs of their Europa League Round of 32 tie against BATE Borisov, the only cup competition they remain alive in.

Earlier this week, Emery admitted at his weekly press conference that they club would ideally sign two players this window, “a midfielder and a defender”. But given the club’s financial constraints they will need to get lucky. And while they remain confident of securing Denis Suárez from Barcelona, and possibly Christopher Nkunku from Paris Saint-Germain, a defender will be far harder to come by.

Emery will likely have to improvise. Despite the growing clamour for the popular Mavropanos to play, Nacho Monreal is more likely to start alongside Mustafi in Arsenal’s next match at home to Cardiff, with Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles out wide. Stephan Lichtsteiner can also be used in the middle if absolutely necessary, although has looked sluggish when turned to this season.

If there has been one major blot in Emery’s copybook so far this season, it has been Arsenal’s worryingly leaky defence. Emery may have confidently claimed that Arsene Wenger’s downfall was because of his team’s “lack of defensive structure”, but Arsenal are actually worse off defensively than they were at this exact point last season.

Unai Emery speaks to an injured Sokratis (Arsenal FC via Getty)

Not that Emery is necessarily to blame. Arsenal recruited just two new defenders in the summer — Sokratis from Borussia Dortmund and the creaking Lichtsteiner from Juventus — while every single one of their senior defenders has suffered at least one injury this season.

But, even with a severely depleted backline, he will need to find some solutions very quickly if he is to salvage something from his first campaign in north London. Arsenal cannot afford to drop many more points in this thrillingly close sprint for the top four — slip up against either Cardiff or Huddersfield either side of their trip to Manchester, and their race could be run.