All positive for the Gunners, aside from Coquelin’s injury!
Arsenal fans will go home tonight very happy with the day’s result. A 3-0 victory for the Gunners at home against Chelsea, meant that Arsenal have beaten the Blues for the first time in the Premier League in ten attempts, whilst the Gunners also finally broke the record of having not scored against Chelsea in the last six games. It was a fantastic performance all round and the fixture showed that it is a new era post Mourinho, with the match no longer being Wenger vs The Special One, but more traditionally a London derby of Arsenal vs Chelsea.
Every single player on the pitch for Arsenal put their heart and soul into that performance and it really showed through the difficulty of having to select a single player for the man of the match award. Any Arsenal player on the pitch was capable of being honoured with the award today and there were no negatives to take from the game, besides Francis Coquelin’s injury.
Coquelin was selected to start the match by Wenger, ahead of the arguably more favourable Granit Xhaka, who after two stunning back to back goals, was being pressed to start by the fans. Wenger however trusted to stick with Coquelin to provide that strength, pace and protection of the back line from midfield, only for the Frenchman to obtain an injury midway through the first half. In a rare attack from Chelsea, Coquelin got his body in the way of an attempted effort on goal from Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante. The force from Kante’s shot and his prevailing body, hit up against Coquelin and left him clutching his leg. Originally it seemed as if the French midfielder may have been able to carry on after receiving treatment, but only moments later he had to be withdrawn from the pitch as a result of not being entirely comfortable on the pitch. Coquelin was replaced by Xhaka, who went on to have a fantastic game.
It’s the only bad news for Arsenal from today and especially for Francis Coquelin, however with any luck it won’t be anything too serious. Coquelin may have come under a lot of force from Kante’s effort, by throwing his body on the line, but I think the Frenchman showed through his fight that perhaps the decision to withdraw him was precautionary rather than serious. With an ever capable Xhaka on the bench, it was certainly the right decision for Wenger to make.
Let’s hope Coquelin isn’t ruled out with an injury for too long, however even if he is, at least we have plenty of capable competition for his place in midfield.
BY AH
I’m absolutely gutted for Coquelin. I hope he gets better soon. I was however pleased to see that he was replaced with another quality player. Last year, we were seriously grieving his loss, as there was no replacement. Advantages of squad depth.
COYG
I hope Coquelin recovers as soon as possible, He’s very important to our squad. the player were absolutely impressive yesterday but I rily want to single out Mustaphi for a special shout out. that Dude has bin wat Koscienlny has needed beside him all diz years. Mustaphi was a pain Costa couldn’t contain. I luv dat dude #NoHomo. Thumbs up to Mustaphi and d rest of d squad. and also special shout out to Arsenal Wenger.
I loved how kos and mustafi had Diego costa in their pockets all day long!
A very speedy recovery to you “Le coq ” coyg!
Greg,Is that hector you’re talking about?…?
I hold my hands up and say I thought Wenger was wrong for using Sanchez through the middle. But if this works then we have a striker that is probably miles better than 80% of the options on the market.
It also makes sense why he got Perez as he is another that is quick and technical
Wengers comments on le coq injury,
“He has a knee injury in the same place he had last year, that’s a negative of the day,” “We don’t know if the damage is as big at the moment, we have to wait for 48 hours but he left the stadium in a brace. I’m a bit worried over that.”
He was out for 11 weeks last season wih the injury to his right knee. Let us hope that it is not as serious this time.
This does raise a question about carefully monitoring players, rotation and rest. There seems to be something wrong at Arsenal, on the one hand, wenger seems very careful about not bringing players back from injury too soon but then we have players who keep getting injured. I know this issue has been debated many times on here and elsewhere but something is wrong, it cannot be bad luck or chance.
Coquelins’ injury was through impact, not stress related, so no amount of training or monitoring can legislate for that. I do agree we do seem to suffer too many pulls, strains tears etc though.
In my opinion its going to be a long one. It was coqulin who signaled to come shortly after attempting to carry on, it wasn’t the decision of the boss. He knew he had a problem. probably similiar to last year, hopefully not quite as long though but when knee’s go they don’t come better in a couple of weeks.
Gutted for Coquelin. Will probably be out for a fair amount of weeks again. But on the other side I’m delighted we bought Xhaka so we can address bad injury luck like this now! I’m really looking forward to some Xhaka-Elneny magic when Santi gets his well-deserved rest! Also opens up a slot for Rambo to come back in.