While Arsenal went into Saturday’s meeting with Stoke City on three consecutive victories (all shutout wins), the Gunners suffered a demoralizing 3-2 loss at the hands of the Potters over the weekend. While the final score suggests a close match between the Gunners and Stoke, the home team was ahead 3-0 at the stroke of halftime.

Arsenal played catch-up from the very start of the match, as Stoke capitalized on questionable defending and scored within the first 30 seconds of the game. The goal inside the first minute of the match was highlighted by a missed clearance from center-back Calum Chambers (normally deployed on the right side of defense), and a slip from right-beck Hector Bellerin. Stoke City never looked back in the match.

Although the Gunners did show some grit offensively with two goals (there could have been more goals for the away team with Olivier Giroud missing a point-blank header and Alexis Sanchez hitting the post), there are obviously some serious issues with this Arsenal team at the defensive end of the pitch.

The Gunners do, however, have some very solid pieces in their defense. Of the team’s back four, Kieran Gibbs at left-back, Mathieu Debuchy at right-back, and Laurent Koscielny at center-back are all very capable defenders. The problem with this Arsenal defense is that all three of these players have missed time this season due to injuries.

Specifically, Debuchy has not seen action on the pitch since September due to a serious ankle injury and Koscielny was sidelined for nearly two months because of achilles issues. While the Gunners have surely missed both of the highly-rated defenders, Koscielny’s absence has forced defenders that are normally used as full-backs to fill in at the center-back position.

Koscielny has proven over the last few years that he is one of the top center-backs in the Premier League. The France international’s worth to Arsenal was revealed when he missed six league matches since going down with the injury. The Gunners only managed to win two of the six Premier League matches and have lost the last three league matches that Koscielny was absent for. The Arsenal defense gave up nine total goals in the six Premier League matches that the defender missed.

The 29-year-old defender made a two-game return from injury before sitting out of the Stoke City match on Saturday. With the help of Koscielny, Arsenal recorded back-to-back clean sheet victories over West Bromwich Albion and Southampton heading into the game at the Britannia Stadium.

While superstar Alexis Sanchez receives most of the praise from pundits around the league for carrying this Arsenal team, and rightly so as the Chilean has been an outstanding addition to the north London squad, Koscielny is perhaps equally important to the Gunners as the forward. Koscielny provides experience, stability, and an extremely solid partnership and understanding with fellow center-back Per Mertesacker.

If the Gunners are to turn their season around, finish in the top four of the league, and contend for either the FA Cup or the Champions League crown, keeping Koscielny healthy for the rest of the season is absolutely vital.