Posted by Laurent Koscielny conducted an interview with arsenal.com and here the the biggest three questions and answers from the French defender ahead of his match-up against West Brom where he’s hoping to help keep a clean sheet and push Arsenal to six wins out of their last seven matches.
How have Arsenal changed since 2010?
The spirit is different. A lot of players have changed. There are not many left from 2010. That’s the life of a football club. The manager and the players change but only the club remains. There is a new philosophy.
We have signed some very technical players from Spain or Spanish speaking players like Nacho, Santi, Alexis and even Hector. That was a turning point. Then the Germans came too. And the boss has managed to gel everybody together. We have been playing together for a few years now.
Could this be Arsenal’s year in the Premier League?
It could be. If we can reproduce regularly the first 20 minutes from the Manchester United game, yes we can have the ambition of being champions. But if we play like against Olympiacos, we won’t even finish in the top four.
We have a good squad, a lot of quality. We need to be consistent, though, to win the league. It’s a marathon. Every weekend, we have tough games.
We need to have the same desire and ambition in each of them, even if we know we can’t be at our best all the time. But we need to be solid defensively and efficient offensively to win 1-0 when we’re not at our best.
How many more years do you think you can play?
I don’t know. I will play for as long as my body can take it. I still have four years left on my contract here. I will be 34 then.
Then we will see how I feel physically. But even if you are still fit, at some point, you have to stop! You can’t do a Robert Pires and stop playing at 42 in India! [laughs].
