Arsenal have an unwelcome task this weekend. Awaiting them at the King Power Stadium for their Premier League fixture against Leicester City is a man who is the joint top scorer in the league with five goals and shares the lead in assists with three. Riyad Mahrez might just be the most in-form player in England right now.
But the man designated to subdue the winger, for whom the cliched adjective 'flying' actually seems appropriate, will give Arsenal reassurance. This was not always the case with full-back Nacho Monreal.
Monreal has quietly become one of Arsenal's most dependable performers. It is quite a rise for a player who was parachuted into the squad on transfer deadline day in January 2013, when it finally became apparent to Arsene Wenger, as it had been to everyone else for quite some time, that Andre Santos had degenerated into the kind of liability Arsenal could not afford to have.
Initially vying with Kieran Gibbs for a starting role, for long periods unsuccessfully, Monreal has established his supremacy over the youth team product this season. Gibbs has played only seven minutes in the Premier League all season -- and that was when he was introduced as an additional safeguard when Arsenal were protecting a 2-1 lead against Crystal Palace.
Once touted as a possible first choice for England, Gibbs has been reduced to the role of a backup club player, fit for Champions League matches against Dinamo Zagreb and a Carling Cup outing against Tottenham but not the more serious business of Premier League matches. His persistent injury problems take some responsibility for this demotion, but so too does the ultra-consistent form of his rival.
Monreal's steady and unspectacular brand of full-back play is unlikely to quicken the heartbeat. If you are looking for positions to upgrade, you'd settle on his fairly quickly, but his reliability has nevertheless been a feature of Arsenal's season to date.
The Spaniard is never going to give the attacking thrust of Ashley Cole, whose link-up play with Thierry Henry and Robert Pires gave Arsenal the most intuitive and dangerous of left flanks, or even the lung-busting runs of Gael Clichy.
Claudio Ranieri, Saturday's opposing manager, has firsthand knowledge of a time when Arsenal possessed the Premier League's best left-back options, as the Italian is the only manager currently operating in the top flight to have been presented with the challenge of facing Arsenal's Invincibles in 2003-04. This week he spoke of the quality of that famous team that he faced while with Chelsea, notably the defence, in which both Cole and Clichy played a part, the two left-backs both making enough appearances to earn winner's medals.
"When I was at Chelsea, they were the Invincibles," Ranieri said. "That was an unbelievable achievement, so it is surprising they have not won the league since.
"I don't know why Arsenal have had to wait so long, because Arsene Wenger is a good manager, and he brings in good players, but maybe it is not so easy to replace players such as Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Fredrik Ljungberg and all the defenders."
Monreal does not have the same star quality and most likely never will. He is a solid 7 out of 10 rating in his matches, but that is no bad thing in a team that vacillates between the sublime and ridiculous, often multiple times in the same match. There is something to be said for reliability. He is Arsenal's Volvo. And you can't go far wrong with a Volvo.
It took two years to get to the point at which he was regarded as the first choice. As he explained recently, English football took some getting used to.
"The fans like seeing box-to-box play and lots of direct runs, so I think on a physical level I've improved because you have to get used to English football,"he said. "I've certainly got better in that regard."
His progress over the past year is undeniable, and now there is talk that Arsenal are keen to secure Monreal's future with an extended deal at the same time they go about tying down the £42 million, club-record signing Mesut Ozil. It is recognition of Monreal's new elevated status in the squad and a move designed to quell reports linking him with Athletic Bilbao.
If he can do what many Premier League left-backs have tried and failed to so far this season and keep Mahrez quiet on Saturday, it will only further establish his very quiet ascent to essentiality at Arsenal.
