Unlike a big proportion of the Arsenal fans, it seems like the French holding midfield star Francis Coquelin will not be hoping that Arsene Wenger uses the January transfer window to bring in another player to strengthen our options in the centre.
It is not because he is worried about his own position in the first team either, although there may well be a certain amount of that in his mind. The reason is that Coquelin has been very impressed with the way that the Gunners have coped in his absence so far, and the further problem of losing his midfield team mate Santi Cazorla to injury at the same time.
The 24-year old has been giving his thoughts on how well his fellow Frenchman Mathieu Flamini and the Welshman Aaron Ramsey have been coping over the last few games and he clearly thinks they have done a great job. And not only that, he feels that they have showed the ability to do a good job in the different circumstances that come from playing a game against a big Premier League rival like Man City or a team at the bottom that we are expected to dominate, like the basement club Aston Villa.
He told Arsenal Player, “Every player is different but the most important thing is that the team continue to do well. They have both come into the middle. Aaron was playing a bit more out wide and he probably prefers to play centrally so he’s doing extremely well.
“Mathieu is also playing well and they have shown great stuff since the day they came into the team together in midfield. You can see the results and we have had big wins like the game against Manchester City. This season that is the good thing, that everyone’s going in the right direction, and that we know we have quality.
“If someone gets injured, the spirit in the squad is really good. As soon as someone comes in, they put a shift in and you can see that even when we lose a lot of players, because the team is still really strong. That’s really good for what we want to achieve, to win the title, so it’s great to be able to count on everyone.
“The good thing is that everyone gets along with each other in the squad and that makes a lot of things easier. When you go to tell someone off, you do it and everyone takes it in a good way. We all want to go in the same direction. It’s a great partnership.
“Aaron is a little bit more offensive. Mathieu was getting forward a bit more compared to what he did in the first games he played, but against Manchester City he showed a lot of discipline to play really well. He’s really important in big games and they both showed great quality, which is really good for the next game coming up.”
It sounds to me as though Coquelin is sending a message to the manager here and I have to admit that I have been pleasantly surprised at how well Ramsey and Flamini have got on. Plus you have to consider that Wenger also has the options of Calum Chambers and Mikel Arteta, while Jack Wilshere is supposed to be close to fitness again.
So do Arsenal really need a DM transfer next month?