It is now exactly two weeks since Arsenal lost our midfield warrior Francis Coquelin to a knee injury in the Premier League match away to West Brom. Many of us thought that any realistic chances of us winning the title left the Hawthorns pitch with the combative Frenchman, so the news that he is back in full training is a massive boost for the Gunners.
An early comeback for Le Coq is just what Arsenal fans needed to hear after two away draws in a row at Liverpool and Stoke cut our lead and made the fight for the title look very tight again. While I think that Mathieu Flamini has done an admirable job of stepping in to cover, you will always miss your first choice players to some extent.
That extent has been significant as well, with a statistical report in The Mirror showing that with Coquelin this season the Gunners have conceded just 0.8 goals per game but that rises to 1.3 without him. And that is not just down to finishing or luck as Arsenal´s opponents only managed 10 shots a game with him but 15 per game without him.
Now that Arsenal have the main man back in front of the defence, or soon will, we will be a lot harder to score against and with Alexis Sanchez also back and Ozil in creative genius mode, are the Gunners now favourites for the title?
great to have him back cant wait to see the best team in the world take on the scum that is chelsea ,come on arsenal
@Joe from Kenya,
love your enthusiasm…but let’s be real here.
Hope he cech and kos have a blinder against barca.
We will now hopefully concede less and have the enthusiasm to score more
Extremely happy for the Le Coq’s return “Return of the Coq”!!!
Personally I have been trying to avoid the “EPL Favorites” tag and rather have City have it. I am okay with the “Dark worse” or having the “under dog” who ends up shocking everyone, I think that’s more of the Arsenal way and Wenger’s style, to succeed against the odds.
Whether Le Coq makes us favorites or not he definitely makes us stronger.
.Flamini has done a good job, but we need Coquelin for rest of the season. He is the best DM in the PL
I thought it was longer then 2 weeks out. It’s great news play the new fella with him and get the wins we need. Winning ugly will do me thank you very much
Pretty sure it was more like 2 months lol
Was delighted to see him back in training yesterday battling Elneny on one of thephotos online. Having him back plus Ozil and Alexis will give us a good shot a Barca imo. Chelsea way too early for Le Coq no point in risking him he will be needed for bigger games! Flamini has did a really good job so respect where itd due, well done sir but now has to be Elneny or Francis to cover our constantly bombing forward box to box midfielder Rambo until Santi gets back early March hopefully.
Dont like to be tagged as ‘favourites’ for the title as we havnt won it in years but its nice to be placed among the teams at this stage of the season to go on and win it. We have a habbit of bottling big moments, dont wana get my hopes up but this team feels alot stronger and a tighter unit on the pitch n in the dressing room, so we could well be able to handle pressure of the tag ‘favourites’ this time around!
cant see us beating barcelona, knowing how fifa loves to manipulate the competition so, that some certain teams will away go far, no matter what.
i could slap my self for my broken english. some certain teams will go far, no matter what*
Great to have him back but City are favorites. Sorry, just being realistic. If Aguerro gets hurt again that will change.
The bookies have Man City as the favourites and Arsenal are down as the second favourites,
so don’t worry about the clueless Lemmings thumbing you down… When it comes to facts,They always do ?
no need to rush him, big matches besides chelsea are ahead of us, the season is still long and full of terrors. coyg. give muhama a chance to play