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‘A great partnership’: Redknapp praises two Gunners after Chelsea win

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Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi could form a ‘great’ partnership at the back for Arsenal, according to Jamie Redknapp.

The former Liverpool midfielder used his column in the Daily Mail to praise the centre-back pairing after their impressive performance in the 3-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday.

Koscielny has been the rock of the Arsenal back four for six years since his big money move from Valencia in 2010, but has not always had that second centre-half to form a solid and reliable pairing – a pairing many believe would enable the Gunners to go on and push for the title.

However, Redknapp believes that manager Arsene Wenger may have found that crucial centre-back in the form of Mustafi.

He said: ‘Arsenal have won plenty of plaudits for their attacking play against Chelsea but I was so impressed with how sound they were defensively.

‘He [Mustafi] showed so much quality alongside Laurent Koscielny and for the first time in a long time it looks like Arsenal have found a great centre-back partnership.’

24-year-old Mustafi joined Arsenal from Valencia at the end of the summer transfer window for £35 million and, although he hadn’t made a bad start to his Gunners career, Saturday was his first clean sheet at the club since his arrival.

Although it is still in the early stages of the developing partnership, Saturday’s performance against good, tough attacking players like Diego Costa should provide Arsenal fans with plenty of optimism for the rest of the season.

Koscielny and Mustafi are likely to start alongside one another again on Wednesday night when Wenger’s side host FC Basel in the Champions League.

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