Arsene Wenger says Francis Coquelin’s unique qualities have brought balance to the Arsenal first team.
The French midfielder made 11 interceptions in a tenacious performance against Burnley as the Gunners ground out a 1-0 win to close the gap on leaders Chelsea to four points.
Full of praise for Coquelin’s man of the match performance, Wenger told press after the game:
“First of all he’s shown his individual quality winning the ball and passing it quickly, and he’s very strong in the challenges. He also contributes to the balance of the team and that’s very difficult to measure.
“You know that the balance of the team sometimes depends on one player who has some characteristics that the others don’t. He looks like he has hugely contributed to that.”
Reflecting on the match – a comparatively dull affair compared to last week’s swashbuckling destruction of Liverpool – the boss touched on the importance of his side’s defensive solidity.
“I’m pleased with the performance because it was a more fighting performance than a fluent performance.
“Many people question us on that side but I would first say that I’m surprised by the quality of Burnley. It would be a shame if they go down because they are fantastically well organised, they press very well, they have a great solidarity, they are very fit and I understand now why they took points from the big teams here.
“We had to fight, we had to be combative until the end and we couldn’t score the second goal. Our defenders played well today and won us the three points.
“It was a different test [to last weekend]. At some stages at the start of the second half I thought we were under pressure to concede a goal because we didn’t start very well.
“In the last 20 minutes it looked like they got a little bit tired and we could have scored a second goal. There were periods in the game where we need to be tight, well organised and calm at the back, and I think our defenders and goalkeeper deserve credit.”
On the subject of challenging Chelsea for the title, Wenger again underlined that Jose Mourinho’s side still have a huge advantage given they’ve two more games to play.
“Nothing has changed. Chelsea are still too comfortable. We need a perfect run and we need a non-perfect run from them. We cannot master that, we can only master our attitude. I feel they are still in a comfortable position.”
Rock solid display again from our worshipped Coq!
Every time our Coq gets praised, I always have a smug grin on my face.
I never lost faith in him, even when seemingly everyone else (including arseblog, who I called out on numerous times on how he was being unfairly written off).
It’s a shame there was no opportunity to comment on your article yesterday. As you pointed out he’s the right set of qualities and man for THIS Arsenal team.
I’m going to ask you to speculate. Looking back, do you think this year’s Coq (more mature and with self knowledge) would have had a similar impact on last year’s Arsenal? Would his strengths worked with last year’s style of play? Could we have avoided the jailbreaks we saw away at the big teams if we had a Coq standing tall?
He wasn’t ready last season, otherwise Wenger would probably have called him up.
People say he wasn’t ready or he wouldn’t have made an impact don’t even know what they’re saying. All the attributes Coq is displaying right now are all the attributes he got praised for at the academy level. Exactly what he got praised for in his first loan to Lorient (it seems everyone forgets about his first loan and only seem to know of his ill-fated second loan), which is what he got praised for at Charlton (all the Charlton fans I know said he was a class above the championship, that it was painfully obvious to see). People only… Read more »
Well said. You note the Charlton’s fans view of him – generally they could not believe their good fortune with the loan and expressed gratitude on his return to Arsenal and wished him the best of luck. There is much speculation about what we should do in the summer, even some quite persuasive arguments to sign another world class striker, though I do not agree. If serious funds are to be spent on a single player, a priority should be to find a partner for Coquelin in the long term, to play together or alternate with others depending on opposition.… Read more »
Well said.
And yes, I do agree this is not about Coquelin “becoming good” but the simple fact that Coquelin just wasn’t a classic “Wenger type” midfielder for a while, but he’s finally seen (or remembered) what a pure DM can do.
I do think I’ve ever heard Wenger use the word “balance” as he has since Coquelin came into the squad.
Who would’ve known that what balanced our team perfectly, was Wenger’s Coq?
Difficult to measure.
An athletic, powerful, aggressive ball winning midfielder, who would have thought that’s what we were lacking in midfield?
Yeah but he’s not 6’3″!!
Le Coq deserves a standing ovation… Oh wait, he IS a standing ovation.
Coq has been amazing for us if we didn’t have him we would be about 4th because if you look at the palace game and the Newcastle game and the game today without him we probably wouldn’t have won those games. We have needed his defensive stability for a long time now. sometimes you see him and he goes forward and when he hits the half way line he stops and goes back and defends. Also his awareness of danger is immense. Just look at Thierry Henry’s analysts on sky sports today and that will tell you all you need… Read more »
MOTM for me, saw a funny tweet today:
@DatGuyZeffy
70% of Earth is covered by water and the rest is covered by Francis Coquelin.
Couldn’t agree more.
Love that!
win is a win. got down and dirty!
hopeful for qpr and excited about the Manchesters dropping points hopefully
#COYG
I’d love some of this Coq
Great sliding tackles again and a top celebration from Francis Coquelin – spotter’s badge to Thierry Henry!
The fact that he has stopped accumulating yellow cards without losing any of his edge is, for me, the greatest improvement in his game.
His positional discipline is such an understated asset. He’s one of the first names on the sheet as a result. Great to have him in the squad.
Ha! I wish I could see your face as you typed that headline.
He’s simply a hard Coq to crack
Con conq conquer…simply the best
He Came, he Saw, he Coquelin’ed.
And then he came again.
I think it’s fair to say the main reason we’re happy he’s had such a resurgence is that it enables the puns to continue. Can’t imagine being coqless.
Coq block and Coq penetration directly led to the goal and the win. MotM.
Isn’t it a remarkable turn around for the coq. His career was on the slide and really didn’t look to have a future at arsenal. It just shows what a little luck and a lot of hard work can do. Honourable mention to nacho also another who started the year as second fiddle but did his time at cb and is now a proper solid left back. Enjoying this season since Christmas!
The Coq puns are really getting worse. Let the professionals handle it?
I think those are called ‘Fluffers’…
How long have we been waiting for this man. What a difference he has made to our game and because of that our results.
He’s so robust in his accurate challenging for the ball. Lets hope theres no snotgrass like orc waiting to do him. I aleays worry when we have a star performer cos theres always a cunt waiting to put the boot in. Another 11/10 performance.
Like Ashley Barnes or Sam Vokes?
Wenger’s Coq’s a roc..strong and hard, and doesn’t screw around
Even in his formative years, I think Coquelin has always performed very well for us. He had done a good job at full back as well. His biggest challenge was fitness. It seems German physical execrises did him a lot of good. Almost think we should send Ox and Gnabry there. Oh and Diaby.
we all know what a strong coq can do now. I hope he is always turgid when needed….. hats off
I’m very happy with the team but whenever I read such comments from Wenger about FC, it bothers me for 2 reasons: 1. So many people were demanding a player with his attributes but Wenger sticked to Arteta and Flamini. 2. If we didn’t have the midfield plaque injuries, FC would have never come back at Arsenal and I suspect that all this balance and positiveness we are talking about now, would not have been present and we wouldn’t have this run. This team the best Arsenal team in a decade and next year we have a shot at the… Read more »
Each year we have at least one player who steps up and takes strides towards realising their potential. This year we have two in Bellerin and Coquelin.
Exciting times.
Can’t wait to see our Coq and Bell grow. (Sorry couldn’t resist)
I get he is the favorite at the moment but he is frankly being given more credit than he is due. This is not to discount Le Coq who has been fantastic reviving his career and covering as the safety/DM but if you watch the game again, He had one good tackle around 70th minute and one good interception which he translated to a forward move that lead to the goal. For the rest of the game, he made a couple of decent safe passes, gave away a free kick in a dangerous spot and had a deflection go into… Read more »
Well wenger seems to think otherwise…so there. If flamini was better, he would’ve gotten into the team ahead of coq.
The entire team had about 20something interceptions coqelin alone had 11 minus tackles… You were saying?
And lest people think Wenger singled out Coquelin for praise here, he was asked.
The improvements in defense has been largely due to the partnership of Meterscielny returning and the improvements made by fullbacks in wide areas covering since we were mainly linking goals from there.
Coquelin has made a contribution too with his energy and verve but this contribution is largely OVERSTATED by fans right now.
Perspective.