Francis Coquelin burst into the Gunners first team a couple of years ago after returning from a loan period at Charlton purely because Arsenal had no other fit midfielders to choose from. Wenger obviously didn’t trust him but when he finally gave the Frenchman a chance he performed magnificently and suddenly he was the first name on the teamsheet. But when Arsenal were going through a lean period last season, Wenger dropped Coquelin and we have hardly seen him since with Wenger having a mountain of midfielders to choose from.
But it appears that the centre-half is going to be given an opportunity tomorrow against Nottm Forest as Wenger has promised that we will getting more games during the congested January period. The boss said today: “He is 100 per cent professional, Francis, and an example for everybody, and all the young players. Life has been a bit unfair with him, it’s true.
“That’s also down a bit to our change in system – he paid a heavy price for that – but overall he’s in a very good shape.
“We’ll have games, many games now, so that will help him keep his focus and maintain his quality at a very high level.”
Le Coq has already played six Cup games this season so he hasn’t been completely sidelined, and Wilshere seems to have played very well when they were midfield partners. There are a lot of fans that have been very unhappy with Granit Xhaka in the centre, and now the Swiss international is injured maybe we will see Coquelin playing more often in the Premier League. Who thinks he should be starting ahead of Xhaka anyway?