Coquelin blames Arsenal title failings on absences

Francis Coquelin has claimed that the mass of injuries suffered during the season has cost the club their chance to lift the Premier League trophy.

Arsenal sit 13 points behind surprise league leaders Leicester City currently, with only six matches left to play. Despite a huge winning streak and a number of other results going our way, our chance to win the league is all but dead.

With all of our regular title rivals all suffering abysmal seasons, pundits and supporters alike have claimed we have missed out on our best chance of winning our first league title since 2004, and Coquelin is claiming that injuries have been their downfall this year.

He said: “It’s difficult. The league is not over yet, but it’s difficult, I give you that. It’s frustrating because this season we had quite a lot of injuries at the same time. Santi [Cazorla], Alexis [Sanchez], I got injured as well, and when the team was in a good run.

“It was difficult to take, but injuries are always going to happen in a season. At the end of the day you have to get the result. It is frustrating, but we had this February, March period where we lost to Swansea, got knocked out of the Champions League, and lost to Manchester United, so it was difficult.”

According to ArsenalReport.com we have had a total of 1,552 days missed due to these injuries, with Alexis Sanchez, Coquelin, Cazorla, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rosicky all having missed over 50 days each.

Injuries clearly played their part in our downfall this term, but for me, Arsene Wenger should be well aware that we ALWAYS lose a number of players during the season, and should have used the summer window last year to bring in two or three outfield players (instead of 0).

The end of season review will surely incorporate that, and the manager will surely be told he must invest in the coming close-season. How many more players do you think we needed this season?

Tags Arsenal Coquelin injuries Leicester

10 Comments

  1. If injuries (Cazorla, Coquelin and Sanchez) put us in 11th place if we count the league from christmas, surely the talk of having a strong squad is pure BS.

    Mesut Özil is a winner; he knows what needs to be done in order to win the league (as with Real Madrid) – and when he says we fxcked up for ourselves, that seems for me to be unlimited amounts more legit than injuries. Losers blame injuries, not being inadequate when it matters. We can by this deduce that Coquelin is one of Wenger’s true disciples, or a liar.

    1. This Coq statement is symptomatic for what what is wrong with Arsenal and Wenger. It is never their fault when they lose. Who (but a winner) will give 100% every game if it is not your fault when you lose anyways? Wenger has bought a team of followers and losers instead of leaders, these players have no pride, and Wenger will blame it on the ref, the pitch, bad luck etc if we lose so no need for the players to own their bad results.

      The quality of the players we had on the pitch during many of our poor results was more than good enough to get good results. (Do I need to use Leicester as an example?)

      Poor results against Swansea, Spurs, Watford, Hammers, Southampton, Hull and Man U in the last few months were not a result of injury but poor mentality.

      I hope you were joking when you spoke of “despite a huge winning streak”, we have not won more than 2 games in a row all year.

  2. At this point the only way wenger will leave arsenal is if we get relegated. Please fellow arsenal we need to kick wenger out of arsenal next year. Please don’t renew season tickets and stop buying merchandise. We need to start a petition to fire wenger.

  3. the fans the players and football analysts all cried for signings and we didnt get them.
    We are stuck with average and mediocre players good enough for a midtable/championship team.
    If this trend continues 3 years from now we might be surpassed by 7 clubs in terms of their capacities.
    But would wenger listen to this?

  4. @talks
    Get a life , a man or a women. Heck, get a puppy, as long as it keeps you away from here…

  5. Arteta Rosicky have added
    little or nothing this season.
    Why were they even kept?
    Flamini Mertz Debuchy are past it.
    Chamberlain is a flop.Gibbs is barely adequate.
    Walcott has become a 140k p/w flop.
    Wenger lied about Wellbecks fitness. Ospina has lost confidence.
    Sanchez and Ramsey overplayed now seem jaded.
    Cazorla’s injury may end his career.
    The team has been carried by Cech Koz Bellerin Monreal Ozi and Giroud all season.
    City offered 30 mill for Wilshere but Arsenal said no.
    So far Jack has missed all 50 games.
    Wenger said there were no football players in the world available.
    Yet with a 30 mill Wilshere transfer fee we could have got
    Vardy, Origi, Mahrez, Deli Ali, + Payet.
    But the “sustainable” model prohibits such trading.
    No it is much better to stay with Arteta Rosicky Flamini
    Debuchy Mertz Walcott Wellbeck Gibbs Ospina and Chamberlain.
    The team is back in 4th place again.
    The brains rust will be happy.
    No place like home 🙁

  6. We need change at this football club. Getting rid of Wenger won’t change anything unless Kroenke leaves too. To me it’s all down to the way the club is run.

    Arsenal are the only club in the league with a profit-maximising strategy. Using minimal resources to gain the greatest revenue. We see it every year. Champions league qualification and reaching the knockout rounds. We see it with ticket prices, player wages, hoarding of cash reserves and a refusal to spend on transfers for top quality players, always opting instead for the unproven cheap prospect.

    Every other club commit all their resources to finishing as high in the league table as possible. It doesn’t always work out, but at least they have their priorities right. Wenger said that football clubs are a business now. They aren’t, it’s just Arsenal that are.

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