Laurent Koscielny took part in his first match in almost seven months on Monday, starting for the u23s against Derby County.

If you read the headlines on the centre-back’s return this morning, most of them go something like ‘Laurent Koscielny returns in 5-0 thrashing by Derby County’. However, this is a completely misleading framing of events and doesn’t tell the story whatsoever.

Koscielny only played the first 45 minutes against Derby, coming off with the scoreline at 1-0. His replacement, Jordi Osei-Tutu, was promptly sent off, as well as fellow centre-back Daniel Ballard. Unsurprisingly, the Gunners then found it difficult to defend with nine men and just one centre-back who was actually a left-back playing out of position.

In other words, the second half was a complete write-off, but how did Koscielny do in the half he was on the pitch?

First things first, there was nothing the Frenchman could’ve done about the goal. Tolaji Bola was caught in possession in his own defensive third, and in trying to make up for his mistake he ended up giving away a penalty.

In possession, it’s no surprise that Koscielny was a cut above the rest of the players on the pitch. He played a couple of very nice long balls, and his passes were generally nicely weighted.

Out of possession, the Arsenal captain won a couple of aerial duels and a few tackles, though he did have to make a foul at one point with a Derby player getting away from him. The defender only got up to full sprint once or twice, as he seemed hesitant to over-exert himself in his first game back.

Overall, it was exactly the sort of game you’d expect from a top defender finding his feet again. It was a competitive 45 minutes and he came out of it without so much as an injury scare, which is ideal.