Fight for places after transfers is GREAT says Arsenal star

Even with Arsenal having allowed Jack Wilshere to go and join Premier League club AFC Bournemouth on loan for the season and with Aaron Ramsey not expected back in action from his hamstring injury until next weekend, the Arsenal defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin could well find himself sat on the bench today as the Gunners play host to Southampton.

With Arsenal also facing the difficult trip to Paris to face the French champions PSG in our first Champions League group game just a few days later, though, Coquelin will be hoping to see some action this week and his combative and tackling ability will more than likely be called for in that tough away game when Arsenal will not be able to dominate the possession as we so often do.

Arsene Wenger already had pretty good options in central midfield, with Mohamed Elneny having been signed in Janury to cope with a few injury problems, including Coquelin´s. And this summer the boss spent bit to bring in the Swiss international star Granit Xhaka, but Le Coq is actually happy about that.

As reported by Arsenal.com he is aware that we need a lot of options to cope with the two domestic cups as well as the EPL and UCL competitions and he knows that the stronger the Arsenal squad is, the more chance we have of achieving at least one of our trophy goals.

Francis said, “With these two additions, the team is looking really strong. We need a few people with injuries to come back, but after that we will have a full competitive squad. We can face the four competitions ahead of us.”

He also declared that the competition for places in the first team among himself, Xhaka, Elneny, Cazorla, Ramsey is good for all of these players as well as the club on the whole.

He went on, “There is loads of competition, but I think that’s a good thing. Obviously we are Arsenal, so we expect competition and a player comes in every year, so it is a great addition. Granit came this year, and I think he is a great addition to the squad.

“Mohamed came in January, and I think he has done well. No one really knew him before he came here, but he has shown how good he is. It is going to be an interesting competition in the middle.”

What I really like about our central options is that they are different, so Wenger can go for a very solid system to protect the back four or a creative and adventurous one to keep teams on the back foot and I think we have got the strongest central midfield in the country. Do you guys agree?

Sam P.

Tags Coquelin Elneny Xhaka

17 Comments

  1. Coquelin has been a revelation for us 2 years ago. Very solid DM
    I think Xhaka and Cazorla will just push Coquelin and Eleney to improve
    Coquelin will have plenty of competition

    Central Midfield is an area I am very pleased with
    At the back we have Xhaka, Cazorla, Coquelin, Eleney and Ramsey
    For Central Attacking Midfield we have Ozil, Cazorla, Iwobi

    Competition is good

  2. City is totally dominating Utd. City is team to watch for me. Mind says Draw is good result for us but my Heart says (As I hate Mou and Utd both) City wins

  3. least surprising result of the day so far. Anybody who has watched United even once knows they have looked terrible, but were just able to get the results. City actually plays football and have been dominant since the season began. Can’t wait to see Mou crying over Pep again

  4. Coquelin was only a temporary Gap filler ( more like a chewed piece of chewing gum) that managed to stop the leak at that time of Desperation! And Unfortunately for him, he will continue to slip down the pecking order and will probably be shipped out next summer.

  5. Wow! Wenger is a changed man ?
    Mustafi and Perez both start!
    Giroud, Sanchez and Xhaka on the bench.

    Chewing gum also starts (Coquelin ?)

  6. What’s with Wenger not starting Xhaka? He also wasn’t set to start against Watford until a late change. AW not convinced by him yet or something? He’s been oustanding against Leicester and Watford so I don’t get it. But excited to see how Lucas does, glad he’s starting. Surprised about no Alexis, our wing options are not very good today

      1. the season just started and we’re already behind our competitors. And if we lose this game I bet you’d be saying why our better players didn’t start too. Alexis is more understandable, but Xhaka should be a no brainer in my opinion.

      2. and some fans? I saw you flip-flopping over Arsene Wenger this summer just like everyone else. You’re so full of nonsense it’s laughable!

    1. I can’t belive some of you guys. Alexis arrived on thursday night. Wenger only saw him after the press conference on Friday. Its difficult to understand how people want Alexis to start. If the player gets injiured, thesame people will call the managers head.

      I sympathise with Arsene sometimes. No matter what he does , some people will just never agree.

      Coquelin should play ahead of Xhaka. yes because he had no internertional break and has been trainif all week together with Cazorla and Ox. What do people don’t understand about this?

      1. You’re acting like Southampton is a pub team and we’re a team in such great form. I don’t know why gooners think this game is going to be easy, I’d rather just see a stronger lineup than the one presented. And I’m surprised by Alexis because the guy wants to start every game and he usually convinces Wenger to let him. I get why he was rested, but days after he said he’s on Messi/Ronaldo level, I thought he’d play.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors