Few Arsenal fans, despite their best efforts, have been able to erase the memory of their Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham last season, where the Blues defied the pre-game betting to come away with a 2-1 win.
For some, the memory has been dulled by a mid-to-late season revival this year that has gone some way to proving that Arsene Wenger still deserves to be sitting in the Arsenal hot-seat.
But for others, the moment when Obafemi Martins pounced on indecision between Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny to score the winning goal in the dying seconds is replayed over and over again in slow motion when they close their eyes at night.
Koscielny, perhaps more at fault than the Gunners' goalkeeper for the goal, received a barrage of criticism after the Wembley final, both from the news sport headline writers and the club’s supporters. To the extent that few could have predicted the revival in the player's career that has since occurred.
Despite Thomas Vermaelen often being touted as the best defender around at the Emirates, there is little doubting, even to the neutral, that the French defender is the most improved player in the Premier League this season, and a glancing look at his stats proves this opinion.
Only once have Arsenal managed to shut out the opposition in the league without Koscielny in the starting line-up, and that was against a Villa side for whom scoring has been a tricky art to master this season. His tackling stats and aerial duel stats have both improved by a percentage of 10%, while his interceptions tally, and his tackles tally, is the highest of all the Premier League central defenders.
With Arsenal fans hoping Robin van Persie can stay both fit and loyal to the Arsenal cause this summer, could it be that the fitness of Laurent Koscielny, somewhat bizarrely, should be more of a focus for them as they look forward to a massively improved season on all fronts in 2012/2013?
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