Sokratis Papastathopoulos had a mixed stint at Arsenal between 2018 and 2021.
The defender was one of the first post Arsene Wenger signings, joining Unai Emery’s ranks in the summer of 2018, leaving Borussia Dortmund after five years at the Bundesliga club.
Making 40 appearances across all competitions in a solid debut campaign at the Emirates, Sokratis fell out of favour in the second half of the 2019/20 campaign after Mikel Arteta succeeded Emery.
Spending six months on the sidelines at the beginning of the following campaign, Arsenal let the Greek leave for free in January 2021, joining Olympiacos.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos said he had a ‘bad time’ in last period at Arsenal
Arsenal lost the 2019 Europa League final 4-1 to Chelsea in Baku, piling the pressure on manager Emery at the time.
After a dreadful run at the start of the 2019/20 season, the Spaniard was dismissed, bringing to an end his dismal one-and-a-half year spell in the Emirates dugout.
Sokratis felt Emery was harshly treated by Arsenal, although this sentiment may have been provoked by how things panned out for the centre-back under new boss Arteta.
Losing his place in the team, the Greece international hardly featured for the Gunners in the run-in, and was eventually frozen out by the divisive head coach.
Half a season without an appearance, Sokratis was likely frustrated by how the second half of his stint in N5 turned out.
Speaking on his time at Arsenal to Greek outlet England365, he said: “Yes, I didn’t play much with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, I played 11 matches [in 12 months]. But when he came to the team, I played in everything. Then Covid came, I also had an injury.
“In the summer, I still had one year left on my contract and the team wanted to make a radical renewal in order to lower the average age.
“Then I was left out of Arsenal because Arteta thought I would leave, but it was a bad time for me too. There was chaos in London, my family was far away, I lived alone for 7-8 months. It wasn’t the best experience.
“And just as we were getting back to normal and getting back into full swing, I was starting in the game before that against Manchester City, against West Ham, and I got injured. I was out for a month.”
Why did Mikel Arteta freeze Sokratis Papastathopoulos out?
Sokratis’ fall off at Arsenal was certainly harsh, but was ultimately justified from Arteta.
The Spaniard undoubtedly wanted to put down a marker to his squad and show that, even if you were experienced, you weren’t guaranteed to play if you couldn’t do what he demanded of you.
Arteta had the likes of David Luiz, Gabriel Magalhaes, Rob Holding, Pablo Mari and even Shkodran Mustafi available to him in the first half of the 2020/21 season, and all of them were above Sokratis in the pecking order.
This ultimately boiled down to the Greek’s industrial style of play and lack of ability in possession.
All of the aforementioned defenders were better passers that Sokratis, and this cost him a role in an Arteta team that was looking to become a possession-dominant side.
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