Fans were left frustrated when Crystal Palace equalised during our second Premier League fixture and the replay showed Laurent Koscielny turning his back on goalscorer Joel Ward as he shot.

Defenders are supposed to be tough and willing to put their face, body, various other appendages, on the line for the good of the team. Usually, Kos does exactly that, but today he just wasn’t feeling like it and turned his back on Palace’s goalscorer.

In his post-match presser, Wenger insisted that he wasn’t happy with the goal we conceded but, other than that, he believes Kos played well.

“I haven’t seen the goal again but Koscielny had a very strong performance today. Maybe he has turned his back by reflex, I don’t know, but overall I was not happy with the goal,” the bos said. “On the other hand it was a good test for us because this is a difficult place for everybody to come and to win.”

He continued, “I’m sure they will beat many strong teams here and to get the three [points] is already a little bit of a turning point in the Premier League for us. To lose today would have been a big blow mentally.”

There are two reasons I’m not that bothered about Kos turning his back on Ward.

The first is that we won. If we’d lost or drawn, I would be angry, especially given last week’s result. However, today we came away with three points from a difficult ground.

Secondly, this is a rare occurrence for the centre-back. Usually he’s one of the first to go sliding in with a tackle. I have no doubt that we won’t be seeing this kind of thing often from him.