Stop worrying Arsenal fans – Le Coq is okay

The fact that Arsenal did not buy a new DM over the summer has dominated the JustArsenal comments for the last few months, and everyone thought that Arsene Wenger was definitely at fault, a view that looked vindicated when we saw Francis Coquelin limping against Chelsea after landing badly on his knee.

Le Coq was substituted at half time and Wenger said after the game: “It is a little knee injury, ”

“I don’t know how long it will be – certainly not for midweek. I don’t know yet how long.”

This is now likely to be just another little bit of gamesmanship on Wenger’s part (as we ALL know for a fact that Coquelin would not be playing against Spurs in the Capitol One Cup even if he was fully fit). I say that because, according to a report in today’s Mirror (where John Cross and Steve Stammers seem to have an inside line to the Emirates news), Cross reckons that there is nothing at all wrong with our top DM.

Cross’ article said: “There was better news for Arsenal on midfielder Francis Coquelin, who extended his knee in the first half of Saturday’s match and was replaced at the interval.

But the injury is not serious and it was in fact a tactical substitution, with the visitors down to 10 men.

It is understood there is no ligament damage and Coquelin could even be fit to face the Gunners arch-rivals Tottenham in a Capital One Cup tie on Wednesday.”

So I think it will be good for Mikel Arteta to get a full 90 minutes (for the first time in a year) against Spurs, we should NOT have to worry that Coquelin won’t be back for next weekend’s game against Leicester….

Tags Arteta Chelsea Coquelin tottenham

31 Comments

  1. If a player has that much of an impact on the game and it is that crucial to have him every game there needs to be another player to help out. Arteta sucks. He’s old, hes out of position, he’s just not arsenal material anymore. with that being said I believe another cdm is crucial

  2. I would love to see Wenger triumph in the face of it all – I just don’t think he has it in him anymore. Not that he doesn’t have the desire to win, just that he doesn’t have the stones to go against his own principles – those same principles, while admirable, are costing us as long as we don’t adapt our strategy. It goes beyond recruitment for me, it’s tactical issues as much as it is personnel.

    We have looked better defensively this season but there are clear inconsistencies that have yet to be ironed out. And if we’re not going to sign particular players, then give the younger players a chance rather than sticking with underperforming players who aren’t helping us. Our attacking movement, while still facilitating chances, lacks structure and purpose at times. We seem to be creating a lot of chances in spite of ourselves.

    I have hope and faith in Wenger, but objectively speaking, I don’t see us winning the league again or the CL while Wenger is in charge – sad as that is to say. I’m a true Wenger-ite so that’s painful for me to say :(….

    1. Ì think its just not about principles. You can have all sorts of principles but what matters in the end is how well you execute them on the pitch. I don’t think its Wenger’s principle that the team have no spirit and have pointless possession without threatening. I saw glimpses of the old Wenger last season with that good run at the end of last season. But he is just not consistent anymore in making good decisions. He was a wonderful manager, one of the best but he is now past his peak. I would love him to win the league but I don’t think he has that capability anymore. No shame in it really, every professional has his prime and it seems Wenger’s time is over. There are far too many indications that this is the case. So best thing for him would be to find a suitable replacement at the end of the season.

  3. AW got his tactics wrong. Chelsea has been losing to teams with grit and speed. Our top 4 should of looked like this:

    Giroud
    Sanchez Ramsey Ox

    1. If Wenger is willing to spend some money…..

      our top 4 would look like this

      Benteke or Martial

      Griezmann Ozil Sanchez

    2. Ox is not reliable at all he is only 40% efficient. We need to take more shots against Chelsea then we will score. The Ox goal in community shield was something unexpected to the Chelsea defenders. They are not used to seeing our players cut in and shoot just like Ox did.

      1. & they are so used to Alexis cutting in and shooting that they did whatever possible to prevent him from getting in a decent shot-(i’d say homework well done to Chelsea)….Hazard got alot of his goals last season using same system (cutting in and shooting), and that is exactly what he did again…

  4. The FA Cup wins felt like a redemption of sorts. Unfortunately the lack of ambition and the feeling that we are just treading water in the league and Europe year after year has cancelled out all the good vibes.

    what a pity.

    1. Ugh this is john cross’ opinion who has no affiliation with the club. His assessment was that he “extended” his knee which is a pretty stupid thing to say given that everyone’s knee extends. I don’t think he’ll be out for a while but this journalist is a tool so don’t go thinking it’s straight from wengers or coq’ mouth

    2. would believe it when i see him (Le coq) play 90mins on the pitch against the spuds!……..haha! is that too much to ask???

    1. what are u jubilating and gloating on about?……… Pray u never hear he had a setback and would need to go under a knife

    2. My guess Wenger took him out tactically to accommodate for Chambers…that’s AW style, take out your DM when you down to 10 Men against the Champions away from home with the score still deadlocked.

      1. Nice attempt at trolling but you literally made no sense. And it’s well documented that coq hurt himself so go talk out of your butt somewhere else

  5. Coq and Sanchez must not play against Tottenham…

    they both need some Rest….

    but Wenger just love to force and push the players to the max

  6. I would rest Coquelin, Alexis, Cech, Koscielny, monreal, Bellerin, Ozil and Walcott so that they will be fresh for Leicester

    Play Ospina, Gibbs, Debuchy, Gabriel, Chambers, Arteta, Flamini, Cazorla, Campbell, Oxlade and Giroud against Spuds

  7. As a pundit Gary is really good to be honest. And you should not expect everybody to hate Costa, they might not like what he has done but that dies not necessarily mean they hate him. Read Keown’s article on the daily mail, he was not that much critical of Costa. More or less he admired him and said he would love to play against Costa because he loves physical game with aggression.

    1. Neville is my favorite pundit or expert or whatever you wanna call him but I lost respect for him after the comments he made about costa’ behavior he was essentially applauding him

  8. The news in France has it that Coquilen may be sideline for up to 4 weeks, don’t know which to believe anyway but yet we stand a better odd to get a win Mid week

  9. Does anyone else think this is a scare tactic by Wenger against the board?

    Look what happened when the board failed to get him a CB…
    Monreal played CB while Chambers played RB and we had a ‘defending crises’, how much of a crises was it when we could of played Chambers at CB (like he did against City for a MOTM performance) and Bellerin on the right?

    We got Gabriel quite quick in the Jan window, no waiting around till last minuite of the last day of the window…

    Before you dismiss the idea that Wenger has to play these games with the board, did he do any of this when Dein was on the board?

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