Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Francis Coquelin could return for tomorrow night’s Champions League clash with Olympiakos having taken part in training today after recovering from the knee injury picked up against Chelsea.
The French midfielder missed the 5-2 victory over Leicester at the weekend and was replaced by Mathieu Flamini who subsequently picked up a hamstring problem inside twenty minutes.
In a slightly worrying development Mikel Arteta, who came on for Flamini, also appears to have suffered a knock that will rule him out tomorrow. It’s not believed either man will be out for long but with fellow midfielders Jack Wilshere and Tomas Rosicky already long-term absentees it’s not ideal.
In attack it looks as though Theo Walcott will continue up front as Olivier Giroud is suspended following his red card against Dinamo Zagreb.
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If Flamini and Arteta picked up injuries with such little playing time this year when both finally got to play in consecutive matches that does not bode well for the remainder of the season should anything happen to Coquelin again. We still have some depth there with Chambers, Ramsey or even Chamberlin (though certainly not an ideal spot for him) having played in the holding role at various times, but not are ideal. If there is a must win game in round two of the group stage this is certainly it. We usually have done well against teams for out… Read more »
A knock is a knock. It does not mean Arteta is prone to something….Other than outstanding hair
Let’s just forget he’s 34 and spent the majority of last season out injured why don’t we
33
And a third.
Turty tree and a turd.
Why we gave him a new contract AND signed no DM I will never understand.
well if we had neither we’d really be fucked right now, wouldn’t we?
And 33 or 24, having a crocked ankle most of the season is going to put you off the pitch.
How’s that? How are injured players useful?
Maybe if nothing else it will encourage a move in January for the elusive DM we have all been asking for
Doug, always the optimist.
Up step Glen Kamara? Have always looked good in U 21. Hope he ia up for the task
Hang on. Jeff? Glen? Please tell me there’s a Frank, a Henry and a Clive in the youth team as well
Bubba just signed with the under-12s, I hear.
Well..there IS a Henry in the youth setup, albeit in a coaching role.
A bit unusual for Wenger to have two senior backups for a position, especially when it wasn’t a Q of availability in the transfer market.
Don’t know if it was the plan that Chambers gets enough playing time between RB (3rd choice), CB and DM (both probably 4th choice)!
Yikes, this leaves us perilously short of options. It’s unlikely that the Coq will start given that he just returned to training (although you never know, who thought Alexis would play against West Ham?).
Which means we might well see a Ramsey-Cazorla pairing, which isn’t a risky option at home to Olympiakos, and certainly better than the alternative of Chambers at DM (he could be a fine DM one day, but not yet).
‘Yikes’ is such a great word. Reminds me of Scooby Doo.
I’m looking forward to seeing you back on TV. You look a bit different though, so I’m reserving judgement on your return.
Not to mention your own series, Dan
Zoiks!
agree with this — Ramsey Cazorla in the middle, Ox on the right, Sanchez on the left. Best not risk Coquelin now — we need him fit for a big match this weekend.
I dunno, anything but a win in this game and we’re basically out of the champion’s league.
Glad that Coquelin is back but to miss both Arteta and Flamtastic at the same time is worrying
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t missed coq.
Coq was out for Sp*rs and Leicester and we man handled them, just the thought of him being in again… Hallelujah
Perhaps this is Ramsey’s chance to show Wenger that he’s more beneficial centrally. Personally I don’t mind him out wide but if he does begin in the middle tomorrow, hope he doesn’t focus solely on scoring.
Hoping the other two have a quick recovery.
We will be fine against Olympiakos and shouldn’t have to worry too much about the mighty Flamini missing out. Ramsey and Cazorla desperately need something to ignite their season and i think this will be the game. However I still worry about these injuries because I think that we need to keep an eye on next weekend as the United game is going to be huge for the season.
Chelsea are still s*** though.
Coq-a-do-do…don’t get injured again!
Le coq is hard.
He’s metal, he’s steel,
He’s titanium.
He’s does not break.
He does not weaken.
Le coq can stand all day
like a good soldier trying
to impress his superiors.
This is a blessing in disguise. It means Ramsey can finally move back into centre mid and we can once again get the best out of him
Last time Ramsey played in that position was the season we got beat by rugby scorelines by all the big teams. I am not sure that is what we want to go back to.
I reckon he’ll slip the coq in.
Coq is up again after a short rest
Penis
Mike Dean to ref our match against utd. This is ridiculous
Hahaha… Can’t be true
We’ve got Anthony Taylor…. erm…. hooray?
They’re both clones of Mike Riley didn’t ya know?
Its been suggested before, but why dont we try Vermaelen at DM?
sure if we’re barcelona
If not Vermaelen, then how about Gus Caesar?
Why not try David Hillier there, he could do a job.
Im sure a Ramsey Cazorla pairing will be fine and will at least remove Ramsey from the wing which I think most ppl will agree is not his position!
Hope we can build up on this Leicester victory, and get some momentum, and hopefully be firing full cylinders going into this clash with ManYoo at the wknd!
Slip the Coq back it. It was knocked out for a short while, but the hard bastard is back and ready to play, give the Coq a hand
ridiculous
coq will definitely start tomorrow match and something tells me that tomorrow is going to be RAMSEY day
I’m probably the only person who always wants the OX to start ahead of Ramsey.
That probably depends what position you want him to start in.
With injuries to Arteta and Flam, I think it might be a good time to give Chambers a try at that position. I definitely don’t like his lack of speed for either corner back position, but I think he might do well where he doesn’t have to worry as much about his somewhat less pace ability. His positioning seems good, just a tad slow for the outside, but I really think he could do well at DM. His play in relief of Los or Mert was pretty good.
Coq in, coq out each week might be good for some of us but not so good for Arsenal.
Hopefully it stays fit.
It’s not at all relevant really but I’ve just realised I really miss Serge Gnabry. Arsenal posted a video of his goal vs Swansea on twitter. He was looking like he had so much potential. Hopefully West Brom are forced to call on his service soon so we can see him action again!
I would not rush Coquelin back just yet.
Let him fully recover first.
Arteta should be able to hold against Olyimpiacos. The last thing we want is to rush Le Coq back early and get a recurrence of the injury particularly with Flamini also knacked.
Arteta’s out with a dead leg. Otherwise I’d agree.
Arteta and flamini can’t obviously cope anymore. Flamini plays 2 games in a week and pulls his hamstring because he’s not able to cope with the pace of the game.