Arsenal fans wanted fight and Francis Coquelin gave us fight, the problem was that his fight was a bit out of control and saw him receive a well justified second yellow card. And that left us with a man down away in a north london derby which arguably we would have gone on to win.
Arsene Wenger certainly seemed to think so as his post match comments on the Arsenal website suggest. Wenger does not like to criticise his players but you could almost feel the frustration from the prof as he spoke abut it.
Wenger said, “I didn’t have to say a lot to him after that tackle. He made a mistake and he knows he made a big mistake. At half time we warned him as well and it was a mistake. He wanted to do well and mistimed his tackle and got sent off. You cannot complain about it. I can complain that Dier was not sent off. I couldn’t understand that.
“Let down is a big word. He made a mistake and he has to quickly learn from that because at a top level it is full commitment and 100 per cent in all the duels in a controlled way. He got a yellow card because he made a mistake to go down on the tackle.
It was a big moment in a massive game, to be sure, but I really hope that Arsenal fans and the boss go a bit easy on our young midfielder. As Wenger said, his opposite number number Eric Dier could well have seen red as well and in local derbys with so much riding on them these things are likely to happen.
I think that we should forgive Coquelin for this rash moment and maybe even see it as proof that he is a Gunner who is desperate for the club to do well. Lord knows we need a few more like that. What do you think Gooners?