Crystal Palace to feel the force of Arsenal’s discomfort?

If the Arsenal and France international defender Laurent Koscielny is right, then Arsenal fans should be in for a treat today when the Gunners play host to Crystal Palace in the final match of the first half of this Premier League season.

In a Sky Sports report our centre back and acting captain has given his thoughts on why Arsenal went from the run of games without defeat since the opening day loss to Liverpool to the disappointment of back to back defeats and the Frenchman suggested that he and his teammates had simply become a bit too comfortable.

Koscielny said, “Because we scored first in both games [Everton and Man City matches] we stopped to play. We waited for our opponent to do something.

“We were in too comfortable a position. We needed to push ourselves to score that second goal. That could make a real difference for us.

“When you have so many good results in a row after the Liverpool defeat, we were in too comfortable a position, and think we can win easily every time – it is not like this in football.

“You can have all the talent, but if you don’t put everything in, help your team-mates, you can have bad results. We lost this teamwork quality in the two games we lost.

“We showed our character against West Brom, and it is important to keep this mentality for the rest of the season.”

A look at the league table now and our position on it is anything but comfortable for Arsenal, so following on from what Koscielny said we should see Arsenal back to their best today. To be fair I do feel that the Gunners handle this sort of pressure better than the pressure of expectation, so will Sam Allardyce and his Crystal Palace team feel the full force of our discomfort today?

Bob.