Sead Kolasinac is quickly becoming a new Arsenal fan favourite after his performance against Chelsea in the Community Shield.

Kolasinac has been impressive in pre-season. Arsenal fans aren’t used to having players of his… stature… on the team so I think I speak for all of us when I say: he’s rather exciting to watch.

Against Chelsea, however, the left-back put in his best display yet and reached a whole new level of ‘beast’.

After Per Mertesacker collided with Gary Cahill’s elbow and was subbed off early, our tank of a left-back came on and the team was reshuffled.

The 24-year-old, who Arsenal managed to sign on a free from Schalke, scored his first goal for the Gunners – a strong but perfectly-timed header drifted in from man of the match, Granit Xhaka.

https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/894210334940164098

The goal meant that Arsene Wenger’s side were back on level terms after Victor Moses had found the back of the net during the first few minutes of the second half.

Besides the goal, the Bosnia international was brilliant all over the pitch, steamrolling over Chelsea players for fun and generally making us all fall in love with him.

Kolasinac was the second highest-rated Arsenal player on Who Scored (7.5), behind Xhaka (8.2).

Although he only had one shot, it was the only one he needed.

He had an impressive 93% pass success rate, completing 40/43 passes.

The beast also completed all three of the tackles he went into, made an interception and won one aerial duel.

While everyone knew Arsenal needed a no-nonsense tank who didn’t fear anyone, I’m not sure many people predicted that Kolasinac could be the answer.

There are still plenty of kinks that need ironing out – the team is far from perfect. However, the performance against Chelsea wasn’t terrible and we won 4-1 on penalties, which isn’t something I could have predicted.

With Kolasinac in the side, I’m looking forward to the 2017/18 season.