Man City match the Moment of Truth for Arsenal’s DM

I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by how well Arsenal have coped since losing the young French warrior Francis Coquelin from the centre of the midfield. We did lose the game against West Brom in which Coquelin damaged his knee, but that was largely down to his replacement Mikel Arteta.

The Spaniard went on to pick up his own injury later in that game but that now looks like it was a blessing in disguise. Since Mathieu Flamini took over from Arteta as our cover for Coquelin, the Gunners have not lost a game, winning three of the four and only conceding two goals, which is even better when you remebre that three of them were away from home and Arsenal were under serious pressure.

So far so good then for Flamini, but now the Frenchman faces a much bigger test with the visit of Premier League big boys Man City. Last season when we began to rid ourselves of the unwanted rep of crumbling in big games, Coquelin was a massive part of our away win at the Etihad and we really need Flamini to do ma similar sort of job on Monday.

It won’t be easy for him, as t5he latest injury news suggests that Aguero will be back alongside the attacking and creative talents of Sterling, Silva, De Bruyne and Yaya Toure. Can Flamini pass this toughest of tests? And if he does, will that stop Wenger from signing another DM in the January transfer window?

Tags Coquelin Flamini

5 Comments

  1. Flamini should be fine (hopefully). He may have lost a bit but still has bags of experience. however our defense needs to be on the ball. Not make any silly mistakes. We have an excellent defense but I think all of our defenders have made mistakes that led to goals. Cech is very consistently excellent but when defenders make big mistakes there is Not much a world class keeper can do.

    Also our attack needs to be patient, not give up the ball easily then when given a chance be as clinical and precise as possible. There is no doubt Ozil will deliver chances

    I am really excited about this match
    I know we can win if we are at the top of our game

  2. I have been thinking about this lately.

    This “moment of truth” is not limited to the City game only. In fact, our entire season this year is one big “moment of truth”, considering this is such an open season (it’s almost new year and Leicester are top of league!!!!) and the condition for us to win the league are more in our favor than before.

    I know this question may not be a popular one around here and at this time but… if it so happens we don’t win the EPL come May, to what reason are we going to put that to?

    1. We were never able to compete with City and United for quality of players?
    2. Our tactics and strategy just wasn’t good enough to win us the league?

    Thumbs up for 1
    Thumbs down for 2

  3. You remind of the painful moment (nightmare) caused by our dear captain. Hope he wore that ban for the last time.

  4. I never like to judge a player solely on one match but……. the overall point is nevertheless valid.

    This match may give us at least an idea if Flamini is up to the difficult task.

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