'Pacey and strong' Konstantinos Mavropanos makes Arsenal bow as U23s romp to victory

James Benge16 January 2018

Konstantinos Mavropanos kept a clean sheet on his first appearance as an Arsenal player last night as the Gunners Under-23 side crushed Manchester United 4-0 at Meadow Park.

The Greek centre-back, 20, joined from PAS Giannina earlier this month and was expected to go out on loan to German side Werder Bremen.

However such has been Mavropanos’ impact in training Arsene Wenger told Standard Sport he has opted to keep him around the first-team setup after naming the youngster on the bench in last week’s EFL Cup tie at Chelsea.

He enjoyed a comfortable start to life with Steve Gatting’s U23s in a strong side that also included familiar faces Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock and Eddie Nketiah. The latter scored two with Vlad Dragomir and Jeff Reine-Adelaide also finding the net as United were put to the sword.

​Mavropanos looked composed in possession and made use of his 6ft 4in frame to hold opponents at bay, suggesting Wenger had been right in his glowing assessment of the first signing since Sven Mislintat was appointed head of recruitment.

“He looked comfortable technically, he looks very mobile as a defender and he looks very pacey and strong in all aspects of defending,” the Arsenal manager said before Monday’s game.

“What I don’t know yet is how well he’ll cope with pressure, how much his lack of experience will be detrimental to his performances.

In Pictures | Konstantinos Mavropanos joins Arsenal | 04/01/2018

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“When you go to a big club, every game and every mistake is analysed. Every action you take in the game is analysed, so you’re under scrutiny and that puts a huge pressure on you. If you make a mistake in a smaller league for a smaller club, it’s less of a story than it would be at a big club.

“We will see [how he copes with that] that in the games and I haven’t seen him play in England against an English team yet. I have to see that. Personally, I am encouraged by what I’ve seen and I’ve decided to keep him until May.”

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