Kostas Tsimikas is already in Arsenal heads

Liverpool signing Kostas Tsimikas is already in Arsenal heads.

Jurgen Klopp only had the left-back over the line for a few hours but he’s already living rent free among sections of the Gunners fanbase.

The salt comes from when Kostas Tsimikas was playing for Olympiakos, when they had the gall to beat Arsenal in their Europa League knockout game.

Apparently their winger Nicolas Pepe played the left-back out of the game, despite the fact the match ended 0-0 in normal time and the tie went to 120 minutes. Pepe didn’t even play the first leg, where Arsenal scraped through thanks to an 81st minute Alexandre Lacazette goal.

Supporters of the London side think that you can discount an entire player’s career, ambition, trajectory and ability off the back of someone dribbling past a player one time.

Most of their belief that the 24-year-old isn’t a good defender comes off the back of a tiny clip of Pepe running with the ball down the Olympiakos left-hand side. He cuts in, twisting and turning, all while Tsimikas blocks off his avenue to goal.

Despite the impressive dribbling on display, the Greek managed to keep his head, keep his eye on the ball and shepherd Pepe into a less dangerous avenue before the ball eventually goes behind.

https://twitter.com/afcCarter/status/1292885114721120259

For all that work, Arsenal failed to turn a good dribble into something tangible and it says more about Tsimikas’s defending than it does for Pepe’s attacking. The left-back stuck to his task, stuck to his man and limited the danger posed by the Arsenal move.

You can’t ask for much more than that.

Tsimikas has only been a Liverpool man for a few hours and he’s already living rent free. You’d hate to see it.

Sporting director Michael Edwards has finally fixed the most pressing issue around the squad. We should be in the position to do a few more deals, but this is an excellent start.