Cristhian Mosquera: ‘Arsenal were my team growing up. They had an aura’

The Spain Under-21 centre-back on his club’s ‘crazy’ defensive numbers, his dual identity and his love of multicultural London

“J

esus Christ! All I want to do is get you in a straight bloody line. What do I have to do?” Gerald asks. So Horse says: “It’s the Arsenal offside trap, isn’t it?” Lomper here becomes Tony Adams, and Cristhian Mosquera starts to laugh.

The Spain Under-21 international is sitting at a table in the team hotel in Lugo, Galicia. Through the window, the sound of rain falling; in front of him, the famous scene from The Full Monty, cinematic representation of a defence so perfect, so instantly identifiable it became part of popular culture; a backline never to be bettered. Until now?

Last Saturday, something strange happened: Arsenal let in a goal. In fact, they let in two. “If you’ve gone loads of games without anyone scoring, when they do it’s like it [hurts] more,” Mosquera says. “But the other team plays too and it’s hard to keep that statistic going.”