‘Kolasinac and Lacazette have grown in confidence’

Laurent Koscielny knows exactly how it feels to move countries to sign for a new club.

Joining us from Lorient in 2010, the France international had a difficult start to life in north London but has since gone on to establish himself as one of the Premier League’s leading defenders.

Now a senior figure in our dressing room, Koscielny has been responsible for helping Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette settle in, and is impressed with what he has seen from them so far. 

“They have confidence and they’re getting more and more during the games,” the 31-year-old told Arsenal Player. “When you are a new player, when you arrive you are quiet, but after today you will have confidence Lacazette and Sead are the same. 

“Sead played well [against  and had more confidence around his team-mates, so it’s important to keep this up for the club. For Laca, the most important thing is to score. If he scores then he will have the confidence he needs to score a lot of goals.

“We’ve worked a lot tactically because we’re playing with the new system,” Koscielny added. “We had a great pre-season with some good and bad results, but the most important thing is to be ready for the first game. 

“We just need to be ready for the first game. We had different players who arrived later than others because of our big squad, so everyone will have a big part to play in our success this season. We just need to be focused with our team-mates.”