Mow that we have all digested the devastating news that Francis Coquelin will be out for at least two months (that means much longer….) an Mikel Arteta is also out for the short-term, which leaves Matthieu Flamini as the only recognised defensive midfielder in the squad.
Arsene Wenger may have said “I will do what I have to do in January” but the transfer window is still over a month away and we have many many games to get through before then. There is no way the aging Flamini can play every single game, but Wenger admitted he has had another squad player lined up for the role. “We have players that can play in [Coquelin’s] position,” he said. “Chambers has been educated in that position.”
Hm I’m not sure that Wenger might be clutching at straws there, because the last we heard was that Chambers used to be a ight back and was now in training to be a centre-back. In fact he said just two days ago: “I’m not getting as much game time but concentrating on training, playing with the players that are here is only going to help me improve. Learning from the players like Per and Koscielny, I feel I can talk to them during sessions.
“If I want to get a bit of advice or learn something about the position, I feel it is easy to go up to them and talk to them. I can watch them in games and study the way they play and that is only going to benefit me so even though I’m not playing as many games, I’m taking advantage of it and learning.”
Does that sound like he’s learning to be a defensive midfielder? From Koscielny and the BFG?
So according to physioroom…….Le coq will be out until Feb 16th…… But that excludes the extra weeks for rehab
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That being said, we are co*ked and scr*wed
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And for those of us who thinks The fLame is the man to deputize in his stead……… Aside his inconsistency and unreliability, Let’s see if he can strings 3 matches without Limping off the pitch
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That being said, we are co*ked and scr*wed a second Time
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This is the story of our Arsenal
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End of……
Scr*wed as usual. Arsene cards is running short and easy to predict.
My suggested team:
Cech
Bellerin – Mertesaker – Koscielny – Monreal
Flamini – Cazorla
Sanchez – Ozil – Campbell
Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Debuchy, Gabriel, Chambers, Gibbs, Ramsey, Ox
I would prefer chambers in the center back role, and ramsey in the DM role!
All I know is Ramsey is no winger. I know Santi does some incredible things with his technical abilities but I feel that is Aaron’s best position.
ive prayed to bob marley since saturday 6 times an nothings changed
i changed my ringtone to buffalo soldier,
burned purple kush incense all over the old peoples home….
its not working
gabriel at CDM would be better. chambers not fast enuf. jeez.
Oh god
the situation at arsenal right now ain’t funny….. I could use a comment from Hafiz rahman!
If not then why not krystian bielik!
cos hes not near ready to deal with pace of the pl.
his passing needs work. he needs to work on his reading of the game an movement.
he is francis coquelin if he was made to wear a sherman klump fatsuit.
Some players don’t need to be ready, look at Bellerin
Then when will he be ready? 2020?
Bielik isn’t eligible for champions league at least until the knockouts. Flamini can cope against Zagreb, with Ramsey and chamberlain returning for Norwich. Perhaps wenger should consider a slight system change instead 352 with Gabriel or keep gibbs in the team but tucked in more centrally to help flamini out.
After Zagreb there is just 7 matches until the window opens. 4 of those should be winnable, 1 against olympiakos could be a dead rubber or highly important depending on what happens tonight, with Man city and Southampton matches being the sternest tests.
We should have enough to get through that period, but anymore injuries and our league chances will be shot. Wenger should be lining up at least 1 new years day signing, and as soon as he knows his champions league fate should be looking at 2 more.
Ok.. So when we’re holding a slender lead what substitute does Wenger usually make?? He doesn’t drop a number into our defensive line, he puts an extra body in midfield. That’s where we battle, that’s where we control and our system is fundamentally built around controlling and building from midfield…
The 352 you’re suggesting is quite frankly ludicrous. It literally takes pretty much all the strengths away from our world-class triangle of Mesut, Santi and Ozil to place a struggling for form Campbell in a more attacking role when the part of his role he’s been doing best is providing extra defensive cover, while making us weaker in midfield when our strongest midfielder has been injured!!
How can you possibly think a defensive formation is the answer when our team is built around attacking!!!!!?!?!?!
Hahaha According to wenger,
DM Is the same as CB but further forward,
We have a AM used as a DM and a winger as a Striker,
A Striker used as a winger (Welbeck)
If cech didn’t have an issue with heading the ball (cracked skull) we could have played him as a Striker, I bet that he wouldn’t miss as much as Giroud does ?
Anyways. .. I can’t wait for tomorrow night!
I heard that the Circus is coming to the Emirates!
Roll up … Roll up!…
So where did Santi play at Malaga before we bought him? Just curious?
Henry, RVP… Did pretty good later in their careers filling in at striker considering they were wingers.. Stubborn Wenger!! Putting them in at striker, what does he know?
If anyone can play at the level Santi does in their supposed secondary role, I honestly don’t care if it’s Ospina who plays DM.
I honestly hate the way fans lock players into positions… There have been so many cases of players who grow mentally later in their career and move back deeper on the pitch so they can have a greater impact on tempo and running the game. Pirlo, Schweinsteger and Gerrard are three great examples of players who started in a primarily attacking role. Modric and Kroos do I keep going??
Santi has a beautiful footballing mind with absolute pure technique. Arguably our most important player. I hope he’s our Pirlo for years to come.
Actually.. Strike that.
I hope Pirlo looks back at his later career and wishes he played more like Santi 😛
Santi predominantly played on the left for both Villarreal and Malaga.
It is what it is, chambers or bielek I wish them both the best luck! Wish we could use gabriel in some way. Gabriel as dm? And chambers with kos? Per on the bench where he belongs. Still cant get over the way he jogged back for the second wb goal. I’m fed up of seeing kos patiently and quietly playing as lone cb!! During this period having hayden, gnabry and akpom at our disposal would have been handy.
gabriel has that tenacity that coq had. and he has speed. he would be much better at cdm. therefore, i would be very surprised to see wenger put out gabriel at cdm.
wenger should go at the end of this season: not for this one loss to WBA; but what wenger represents: failure to plan, acceptance of mediocrity.
calum chambers as our dm
we r screwed. an not in a karma sutra sense
im gonna try watching arsenal games when im not sober from now on.
i wonder what happened to mr blobby
He slipped whilst taking a penalty ?
He was very upset in the changing room ?
totally inconsolable.. he kept muttering the words:
blobby blobby blobbyyyyyy!!
As the Gunners face a do or die Champions League clash against Dinamo Zagreb tonight, Wenger feels hard done by that, even though Zagreb player Arijan Adem was banned for four years after failing a drugs test after September’s shock 2-1 win, the result is still allowed to stand.
And days after complaining last week, preparations for Saturday’s Premier League match against West Brom were interrupted when a 10 doping officers descended on the club’s London Colney training centre for what Wenger described as an unprecedented out-of-competition random drugs testing swoop.
Arsenal subsequently lost the game 2-1 and Wenger admits he now needs to be more careful when he complains about the football authorities failing to take the drug situation seriously enough.
“I said that before that I want better controls – and we got better controls straight away,” added Wenger. “We had 10 people on Friday to control us. I don’t remember we have been controlled before. We have nothing against it.”
Wouldn’t it be ironic if one of our players fails that test?
That’s the first time in Wenger’s career that the Arsenal player’s were tested ?
I wonder if we will now find out what Sanchez uses to keep his energy levels up so high!
Nice one Wenger ? NOT!
How is that a bad thing and why is Wenger in the wrong? Do you want to play against players who are cheating? Would you accept Arsenal players doing the same, just so long as they weren’t caught doing so?
I’m not being funny but if they have never had these tests done since wenger has been the manager, then I wouldn’t be surprised if all our player’s were found with some kind of illegal substance in their blood/ urine.
i know that i wouldn’t be happy with our season ending for that reason, These tests were only done to Arsenal fc,
And it was done unexpectedly because of wenger!
My point was that wenger’s plan back fired!.. he was hoping that the lost in zegrab would have been scrapped and the 3pts would have been awarded to Arsenal! Because of a zegrab player failing a drugs test…
That result stood and nows theres a big chance of us getting xxxxed over… You still don’t get it… do you?
?
Arsene didn’t say that Chambers has been working on defensive mid role up until now or even lately for that matter all he said was that the lad has been educated in the role before now, it’s not news we all new this from his sou days.
That said I would like to see Bielik with a few games under his belt. He is very young and he may not be ready but this would be a great education for him and who knows he might just swim. They thought Bellerin wasn’t ready when he took his shot and frankly we don’t have much options. We know what we will get with Flamini and we know Chambers is hit and miss but when he misses it’s Squilaci bad. I’d vote Bielik over this lot, not on performances more because of how he’s supposed to be the best thing to come out of that country for an age and a star in the making ..so why not give him some real experience.
Also I was thinking rather than wondering which one player is gonna come in to try and fill Coqs boots well why don’t we just double up in that position making it one of our strongest areas rather than seeing if we can scrape by.
That’s 5 players out? sanchez is about to burn out, so what will he do next?
1 more year of his madness
Listen Baby Please
I know Ramsey is not a RW but at the moment with all our injuries, beggars can not be choosers. Cazorla and Ozil are our best CMs. Ramsey is not a RW but neither is he a DM
Therefore, Chambers could be the best choice for DM as he is defensive minded and started out with Southampton as a midfielder.
If Campbell deserves a chance, then so does Chambers IMO. Who knows he might do well after 2-3 games at least for a backup role?
Let’s play a game called: spot the sarcasm.
Arsenal are going to win the league…..la la la
We are going to be champions….la la la
We’ve got kqualty…..blah..blah..blah
I’m the big fraudulent gunners manager…..la la la
What a Clownish manager!
Wenger out!
Wow… You must’ve been incredibly bored during our winning streak. Ah well…
Enjoy your brief time in the sun before we get back to the business of winning again! Have a good one 😉
Damn… So much arm-chair managing in one thread it hurts!!!
People still disputing Santi’s position when he has unquestionably made the deeper role his own! Oh no.. But wait! He’s an attacking midfielder! It says so on Fifa! Sit down FFS… Arguably our best player this year and absolutely crucial to the way we play. If Santi plays well we control the game, end of!
Chambers began his career as a midfielder.. His best position was up for debate at Southampton until an injury in which he filled in at RB and made the position his own. Shows his versatility. So many fans judge players on the tiniest peak of game-time..
Coquelin’s a big loss. As we’ve had many times in seasons before and players Wenger has shown faith in have stepped in, upped their game and contributed. Look at Bellerin and Coquelin last season, Cazorla absolutely owning his new role, Ramsey, Theo’s season after RVP’s departure. Sooo many cases.
There’s going to be a serious adjustment for whoever steps in… But I hope they just take their time and do the basics first and foremost. Shield our D, Help out the flanks when needed, get the ball as safely and quickly as possible to Santi or Mesut and let our attack do it’s thing. If they do this in our upcoming fixtures we should walk away with 3pts and hopefully have enough time to settle.
If it is Chambers to deputize… I dunno guys, maybe give him a game or two before evaluating??
Why not try Mertersaker in DMX instead of Chambers….lol. Arsenal season is getting more interesting. Let’s see what Wenger is up to. But to be honest, this is not good feeling at all.
It was pure madness not to put in a bid for Schneiderlin, especially as his preferred location was London over Manchester. I think DM is the most attritional position on the pitch, and to have someone like AR16 in that position is really playing with fire. Also, with the amount of battering a DM gets during the season, it is insane not to have a top class backup, as more than likely they will be needed, and rotation should help to preserve both staying fit, as I can’t help thinking FC’s knee injury earlier on in the season had something to do with the current knee injury.
I think Bellerin would possibly do a good job as temp DM, but then he would probably do a good job in any position, and we would miss him as a flying wing back.
I’ve been thinking about this baby Please
Last season with the injuries to Debuchy, Arteta we got great revelations in the form of Bellerin and Coquelin.
So, if Chambers doesn’t work out in that position then we can try Bielik. Maybe Bielik could be the next rising star.
If neither works out, we will have no alternative but to do business in January as Coquelin will be out til February 16 which usually means March 16 unfortunately.
I think we all need to hold our fire. Which one of us had imagined that Coquelin or Bellerin would be so successful when they was enlisted to stand in for the injured Arteta, Flamini and Debuchy respectively? Why shouldn’t Chambers be given the benefit of doubt considering that he has previously shown glimpses of brilliance? There is a new spirit in the team where every player is trying to take advantage of every opportunity he is given and I have no reason to doubt Chambers’ ability to excel. The habit of bashing Wenger for everything even injuries is not realistic! Haven’t we had situations where all players in a given position are injured same time? Would that be the manager’s fault. Even if we buy players we can’t give guarantees against injuries. It is not possible to buy more than 4 players for every position. Similarly it is not realistic that you will have quality players as reserves waiting for those who will fall sick. The realistic thing is to have a few utility players who can stand in for the injured and the sick. Chambers is being turned into such a player as is Ramsey and perhaps Gibbs. Let us not imagine that all is doom and gloom. Even in the West Brom game we were unfortunate to lose it. Hence all true gooners should get behind our team and give it inspiration instead of damnation.
Amen to that True Gooner like me davidrusa sir!
That’s the spirit mate.
The DM role has become so vital to every top club’s performance that it’s absolutely staggering we still have the level of backup we have. I think Wenger should at least be looking at a player that can play both roles in the pivot, because Santi doesn’t have many years left either. Even more baffling that Wenger indeed didn’t bid for a guy like Schneiderlin or Krychowiak.
Whoever Wenger thinks is best for the following league game, should also be played against Olympiakos to get used to the position. I personally like the idea of Chambers there, he can man mark and intercept pretty well, but whether Wenger will gamble on him in the CL idk, I’m assuming Flamini is starting vs the Greeks.
Zagreb, Croatians* my bad
I would prefer Chambers over Flamini. I don’t think Ramsey is ready yet otherwise he would be my preferred replacement for Coq for the moment.
At least with Chambers we are investing in a player for the future, the more minutes he gets the better for his development even he struggles which is to be expected. Flamini is past his peak and can be a liability in terms of picking up dumb cards early in games. He still is a useful sub and educator IMO. So give Chambers 60 minutes to learn and bring Flamini in to close games out if necessary. I would imagine that the switch from central defender to defensive midfielder should not be too difficult of a positional switch. I would imagine it is easier than what Ramsey and Cazorla had to do, being natural central midfielders and having to learn the role of a winger.
I still maintain that we have to bring a DM in this January.
PS: I also think with Coq out there will be big mistakes made and large wholes left by who ever fills in. This to me means you can not play Mertesacker. You need speed with your center backs to try to close the gaps left by poor positioning of Chambers or Flamini.
Mertesacker does not have this closing speed and won’t be able to hide the mistakes. So for me this is the time to pair Gabriel with Kos.
i don,t know how some of you can call themselves arsenal fans really???
Mertesacker has to be bench and Gabriel brought in with he pace. The defence will have to deal with more pacer break because of the lack of shielding from the cdm position.
I’m glad Chambers is going to be played there that’s where I though he would be played when he arrived tbh. I didn’t like him at Rb because he seemed constantly torn between attacking and defending, and at cb he is too inexperienced. In terms of physique he is ideal for that holding role and is well know to have a very good distribution. I often think he is a very good player when he is given one job to do, and in cdm that is protect the back four. I hope he shines there.