Wenger hails ‘outstanding’ Koscielny ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Swansea

Arsene Wenger has heaped praise on Laurent Koscielny following the Arsenal centre-half’s impressive display at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Koscielny returned to Wenger’s starting line-up alongside Per Mertesacker as the Gunners battled to a 2-0 win at the Allianz Arena.

And even if the result was not enough to stop the north Londoners from crashing out of the Champions League, Wenger believes the 27-year-old’s display was one of the many positives from the game.

“He was outstanding on Wednesday night,” Wenger said ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Swansea on Saturday.

“He has shown a bit more authority than usual and when he gets into that frame of mind, you can see he has outstanding qualities.

“It’s something I know he has but he needs that authority in his game to get his qualities completely out.”

Koscielny has been in and out of the Arsenal starting line-up this season, with injuries and illness limiting him to just 24 appearances in all competitions.

And Wenger says that the France defender’s form has been hampered by the string of setbacks.

“He says that he was disturbed in his preparation [in pre-season]. In our final game in Cologne, he had a calf injury. It took him a long, long time to come back and after that he had many setbacks through the season,” he added.

“And every time he was close to coming back, he had another injury or sickness. He was sick a lot this year.”