---
title: "Arsenal: Club must replace Laurent Koscielny to stand top-four chance, says Parlour"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/arsenal-club-must-replace-laurent-koscielny-to-stand-top-four-chance-says-parlour/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Stephan Georgiou"
section: "Arsenal Football Club"
published: "2019-07-30T13:30:20Z"
modified: "2019-07-30T13:30:20Z"
---

# Arsenal: Club must replace Laurent Koscielny to stand top-four chance, says Parlour

**Former Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour believes that Arsenal must replace captain Laurent Koscielny to have any chance of breaking into the top four next season.**

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Arsenal are reportedly set to conclude a deal for Lille winger [Nicolas Pepe](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11772747/nicolas-pepe-set-for-arsenal-medical-after-72m-deal-is-agreed-with-lille) for a club-record fee, though Parlour is concerned that the current makeup of the Gunners’ defence leaves a problem area unsolved with time running out in the transfer window.

Speaking on [talkSPORT](https://twitter.com/talkSPORT/status/1155720698863783937), the Gunners hero believes that despite links to Kieran Tierney at full-back, the hole that could be left by Koscielny – whose future is still in the balance following his [refusal](https://www.arsenal.com/news/club-statement-laurent-koscielny) to join the club’s pre-season tour – could harm the team’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League.

He said: “The worry for me, has always been the defence. Defenders \[are\] probably the key area that we are missing at the moment.

“We know about the Koscielny situation – that’s not been great for the club, so that is the area, for me, where they’ve got to address big-time if they’re going to have any chance of getting in that top four.

“If you do lose Koscielny, he’s your captain, a real experienced player at the back so they need to replace him.”

Arsenal have recruited in central defence this summer with the acquisition of [William Saliba](https://www.arsenal.com/news/salibasigns-saliba-join-club) – although he will spend next season on loan at Saint-Etienne.

That leaves Arsenal with the same defence that conceded [51 goals](https://www.skysports.com/premier-league-table/2018) last season in the Premier League – minus skipper Koscielny if he does indeed depart.

And despite the return of Rob Holding to the Arsenal fold (with the centre-back making a [comeback to training](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DUABC0P96k) following his long-term injury), Parlour’s concerns could be justified – as Arsenal seem to have addressed issues that weren’t there, with their to-be-confirmed purchase of Pepe and previous additions of [Dani Ceballos and Gabriel Martinelli](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-arsenal/transfers/verein/11/saison_id/2019).

The Gunners’ frontmen Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored [50 goals](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/top-scorers) between them in the last campaign – so with Arsenal’s strikeforce performing well, it could be assumed that Emery believes that for the upcoming year at least, the Gunners are better off going all-out on attack considering their transfer dealings so far.