Coquelin CAN foil Fellaini and Arsenal can BEAT Man Utd

Although a first defeat in 13 games for Arsenal will have been a big blow to the happiness and belief of the Arsenal fans, it has only seemingly caused a small scratch to the veneer of confidence that the players have got from our excellent 2015 so far.

As revealed in an Arsenal.com report, the Arsenal vice/captain and central defender Per Mertesacker is adamant that the Gunners will head to Old Trafford on Sunday feeling great about things and confident of coming away with a second win of the season over Man United.

Our BFG is not saying that it will be easy by any means, but he reckons that as long as Francis Coquelin can do the same sort of job on the United and Belgium midfielder Marouane Fellaini that he did in March, then Arsenal will have the right recipe for success.

The World Cup winning defender said, “We won [at Old Trafford] once and it’s possible to do that twice per season. We are looking forward to it.

“It’ll be a massive crowd again and they will have respect [for us]. We are still in a good mood and have a good level of confidence and we are looking forward to the next four games.

“I think most important are the duels in midfield, around Marouane Fellaini. Francis Coquelin did really well last time. I think that is a major part of their game so we need to try to control this.

“It’s not going to be easy. They obviously want to keep the ball as much as possible. Can we restrict it? Can we get the ball in their half and break? That is what we did last time and we did really well.”

The German also accepts that this game is a massive one for both clubs, even though we are both secure in the top four, as those Champions League play offs could be a real problem at the start of next season, with a shorter summer break than normal this year.

“[It would be] very important because, when you look at the schedule, the break will not be that much. I think, even for non-international players, it is pretty weird.

“And we have a couple of under-21 players, a couple at the Copa America I think, so it will again be a tight schedule, so we’ll try to really avoid that.”

So can Coquelin shackle Fellaini and stop him getting at our back four? Of course he can, then we just need to sharpen up at the other end and the game is ours. Feeling confident Gooners?

Tags Mertesacker

20 Comments

  1. Everyone needs to pitch up, but we must not just concede possession we must control it when we got it, we can’t defend like Chelsea.

    1. our Next meeting (with manure) isn’t about what we could do, but about what we would and should do!

      1. I’m going to sound like Arsene, but it’s true – this game is truly a test of mental capability. If we can bounce back from an unlucky result in such a high pressure game it would set a good mood going into next season. United will be fighting till the last minute to snatch some points in the hope that they can leapfrog us to third. Whilst I wouldn’t go with Per in the starting lineup for this match, I agree with his comments – stop Fellaini and they can’t physically dominate you. Last time round Coquelin did a fantastic job at negating the physical aspect of United’s game (albeit the only physical aspect), so hopefully this time round he can show that the Belgian is not match for him. Rooney could miss this game, which would be a massive boost, but he is meant to be back in training so I wouldn’t hold my hopes on that one. In United’s last game, their left flank got dominated (especially when Blind was playing), so the battle between Bellerin and Shaw/Blind is another one to watch.

        1. i’d much rather lose to swansea than MU. players are humans; they cant focus all the time. esp against swansea. we had a great run and they may also have become a bit complacent. [there was that poor shooting right down the middle, thats the thing i have a real beef about].
          but versus MU we’ll be up for it.
          i really dont think swansea dented our confidence.
          it may have done us some good : like i said, if i had to take 1 loss, i’d prefer swansea over MU.

  2. He won many aerial and ground duels against the belgian beanpole the last time we played them,and i think he will do it again. COYG

    1. You act like Wilsher got away with your prome date and let you for dead. Relax a bit and give a lad a chance to prove himself. He is good player.

  3. OT:
    Wenger should hold the scruff of the collars of all forward players and show them the Barcelona v Bayern game of last night. Especially the two goals scored by Bayern from outside the penalty box by Lewandoski and Mueller. These were gems and simply executed with intelligence. Then he should repeat and show slow motions of these goals at least a hundred times to Ozil, Sanchez, Ramsey, Giroud, Wilshere and Cazorla. And keep on repeating this again and again.

      1. For both goals: The world class Barcelona goalie was rooted in his spot like a fine looking wax museum statue!

  4. I am afraid that every team is gonna go Moro on us by playing this kind of tactic which makes watching football an horrible waste of time. These kind of tactics allways beat us, and Wenger has do something to addres this.

    He reacts always to slow. You might think that losing here and there sometimes is not bad, but to be the best you need to play like the best till the end.

    The moment we are under tenssion to performe, we fail. No surprise isnit it? Same old Arsenal. The game against A.Villa is going to be a struggle like the last time we won this cup.

    1. You are correct and for a long time this has been our achilles. I dont know why Wenger tries to force the issue as it only ends up playing further into there tactics.

      Wenger has beside him the opinion of someone who played these tactics brilliantly and am sure he has a few ideas of what he and his teammates felt was best at finding chinks in the armor.

      1. i felt vs swansea we said “to hell with it” (if we cant score, nothing matters) . swansea to me wasn’t primarily a defensive failure, but an offensive one. we need that cold-blooded clinical striker ; fast & mobile. giroud and welbeck (and walcott) ain’t it. also, i hope he tells them not to shoot it right down route 1.

  5. We only need a draw, thats why mondays defeat hurt two fold because a win there and a draw at trafford would of had us sitting pretty for second. Nevertheless third will do fine as long as we win cup, we can still get second but im happy once we dont have to play qualifier and we have some silverware to boot.

    Knowing we dont have to win and utd do because of liv this game should play into our hands, it would mourinhos but we know our boss doesnt think that way.. mores the pity.

    I expect an end to end football match with plenty of mistakes.. or at least a few.

  6. Every good player has his price. Arsenal besides being in debt before should have started to spend money earlier and then balance the debt later on with time. All the player nowdays who can make this team of ours better are already taken and playing for big teams already. Hazard, Mata, Reus so many missed chanced to get them.

    These teams are bigger then us.

    Suarez was almost taking the bite, but he didnt, the others will do the same. All what Arsenal needs to do is staying ready, so when a team like the caliber of Real M. goes out, and buys the like of Pogpa, only then we can act and try to get a good player from them.

  7. Coquelin has really raised his value. He can make us a lot of money in the transfer market.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors