Coquelin ligament injury a BIG concern for Arsenal?

Amidst all the positives that were on show for Arsenal fans during the heavy defeat of the champions of Portugal on Saturday, not everything about the Arsenal v Benfica clash in the Emirates Cup was good. In fact one aspect of the game could turn out to be a big concern for the Gunners as we approach the start of the Premier League season, and that is the injury picked up by Francis Coquelin.

For the first half hour or so of that match the combative Frenchman was looking great and back to his best in central midfield. Not only was Coquelin doing his job of reading the game and breaking it up with fast and hard pressing along with some tough tackling, his passing and use of the ball was very impressive and he even played a key role in our second goal scored by Theo Walcott.

When Coquelin plays like that it makes me forget about the old cliche of Arsenal having no steeel to our spine and I think he is a massive player for us in that respect, so with a tough start scheduled for us in the EPL title race we could have done with him at the heart of the team.

Buit as Arsene Wenger revealed on the Arsenal website, Coquelin’s injury is to an ankle ligament and even though the boss says it is not a bad one, a medical website explains that he will miss a minimum of four weeks and it could easily be twice that.

Even four weeks is not a good time for us to be without Coquelin as we play Chelsea, Leicester City, Stoke and Liverpool in that time, so will this injury be a big problem for Arsebnal and our title challenge?

Bob.

22 Comments

    1. I really like ElNeny but I don’t think he is good enough for AFC, it bugs me! lol!
      He has passion and drive but he is more of a squad player, shame as it would be nice if he stepped up and turned into a CM destroyer, being a high tempo CM…

      At least he stays fit unlike Wilshere so I want to see him stay 😛 I would prefer better quality coming in though to try and dominate the CM in games more often.

      1. But then when he is played at CB in meaningless preseason games to help improve key aspects of his game like positional awareness, reading the game and tackling among other things, we all are up in arms… Playing cb did wonders for Alex Song when he was eventually pushed up to midfield. If he makes the most of his crash course in positional awareness and smart interceptions, he could just be to us what Kante is to Chelsea and was to Leicester, a tireless and selfless midfielder who sniffs out trouble and puts out the fires before they get out of hand.

    2. lol, not really

      but i wonder why arsenal cant tempt sevilla for nzonzi….or get renato sanchez on loan, because we can more than afford to pay him.

      worse of all…how does a club like arsenal,with a sanchez situation not go in for a player like douglas costa? such a solid sanchez like player off to juve silently…arsenal is really poor in trading

  1. Where Or Not Coquelin Is Injured, We Still Need A Reliable Midfielder To Add Steel, Balance And Solidity. Buy Idrissa Gueye Or Naby Keita.

    1. I reckon Xhaka- Coq is our best CM partnership at the moment if we are talking steel, balance and solidity. I agree we need a player with steel like Gueye.. but is he an upgrade in the current setup? Wenger and Gazidis are “looking for” upgrades that fit how we want to play.
      Pool couldn’t get Keita for close to €70M!
      I think Goretzka is the better option if he is truly available and willing to come to us.

  2. Get well soon Coquelin, you was looking like a monster again and would love to see you play as much as you can while in that form.

    On the plus side, maybe this injury will force Wenger to get Carvalho, a tough CM who can tackle and neat passing. Wenger has wanted him for a few years if media is the be believed and we could do with a big and powerful presence in CM and to get the best out of Xhaka as well.

  3. La cock does give us some steal in the middle but I am not 100% sure he is the calibre of player we need.

    An upgrade would be welcome but not convinced the boss will bring anyone him, we can hope and there is some time.

    Still got to love it when he starts kicking the opposition and is a little less prone to the red card then mr xhaka ?

    1. I too love Goretzka and I think we absolutely need a player like him in the first team… but that does not take anything away from Coq’s credibility as our best CM in defense, tackling and interceptions. And he can play a bit too. Check the stats for last season.
      Chelsea central midfield was better than ours last season because they defended, tackled and intercepted faaaar better than we did!

  4. Four weeks…so we know that’s at least two/three months then. So now we’re down to just three recognised central midfielders (one of them now playing as a CB), and not one of them is WC. Less than two weeks before the league starts, and we’re already in a lot of trouble.

    Business as usual for Wenger!

  5. Coq wouldn’t play much anyway. It’s clear that Xhaka/Ramsey is Wenger’s preferred midfield combo. We also have Elneny who can play there. Maybe even Ox. However, it still doesn’t explain or solve our problem with the lack of creativity after losing Santi Cazorla to a long term injury. A decent replacement for him was/is a MUST.

  6. Would be such a Wenger thing to not sign anyone and claim Wilshere is like a new signing. We needed a quality CM before, now it should be a priority.

  7. So currently the injured or not yet ready for a full game reads like this:
    Debuchy (surplus)
    Gibbs (sick and surplus)
    Mertesacker (clearly not fit for 90)
    Gabriel (injured)
    Koscielny (suspended)
    Alexis (sick and sulking)
    Wilshire (not ready/surplus)
    Holding (not ready)
    Cazorla (injured)
    Mustafi (not ready)
    Chambers (not ready)
    Adelaide (not ready)
    Bellerin (not ready)
    Jenkinson (surplus)
    Campbell (injured/surplus)
    Perez (injured/surplus)
    Akpom (surplus)
    Coquelin (injured)
    Looks like some of the surplus, might have to get involved.

  8. There is absolutely no excuse now for not getting a quality CM (although Wenger will think up an excuse)

    We have plenty of players to dispose of to raise funds and free up salary funds ie. Gibbs, Jenkinson, Debuchy, Wilshere, Akpom,

    DM or B2B but we need a CM badly now that Coquelin is injured.

    MOurinho did the intelligent thing and signed Matic. Last summer Conte signed Kante, MOurinho signed Pogba, Pep signed Gundogan, Spuds Wanyama etc. Xhaka was a good signing but we need another.

    Carvalho, Gueye, Goretzka, Seri, Nainggolan, Pjanic, Matuidi, Romeu, Gonalons, Fabinho, Illarramendi, Strootman, Camacho, Borges,
    There are tons of experienced and/or talented Central Midfielders

    Not getting one will be idiotic as well as going back to our cheap ways. Now is the time for Wenger to step up. Get Lemar and a quality CM

    1. Fabinho the best for me, Strong, Tackles, Arieal duel, Passes, Can Play as CM,DM,RB and even CB if possible. would be the best for us. Put £90million for bot Lemar and Fabinho. £50 for Lemar and £40 for Fabinho

  9. ‘Even four weeks is not a good time for us to be without Coquelin as we play
    Chelsea, Leicester City, Stoke and Liverpool in that time, so will this injury be a
    big problem for Arsebnal and our title challenge?’
    Which title challenge were you referring to? EPL? With this so usual situation? You got to be kidding me, mate!

  10. so far as rumour mill has it we can expect another signing shortly. its about time we announce willy to replace coq in DM… ie.carvalho

  11. Why does everyone say we can afford this and that to me I’m not so sure we have cash from with in or out there’s a lot not adding up like when we just bought Cech does not make sense we buy lacasette but sead kolasnic was free I’m not sure we have da cash and if we do can we spend or do we have sell like debuchy got 70 grand a wk most of us wouldn’t make that in a year just think about that, he didn’t play at all and that’s why we haven’t da money and sanogoal like cum on cut da squad pay the real players , manage da club get world class players and great squad players

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