Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is expected to confirm today that Coquelin has suffered knee ligament damage in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at West Brom.
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Olivier Giroud headed Arsenal into the lead in the 28th minute but seven minutes later James Morrison was allowed to run on to a free-kick by Chris Brunt and volley into the net from 10 yards.
“There’s been games here this year where we’ve been disappointed because we’ve lost”. “Give West Brom credit for fighting, but we produced enough to win this game”.
“I think we still have a strong chance but it will be very tight now”.
“I can’t say more than that, but certainly for the next two months we will play without Coquelin”.
“Our defending at that level was very, very poor”.
Despite enjoying 73% of the overall possession, Arsenal failed to breach the home side’s goal and had themselves to blame as Joel Campbell and Santi Cazorla squandered great opportunities to equalise. You expect what you always expect in the Premier League; a committed, physical, fast game and a game where we cannot afford to make any mistakes. I don’t know about the influence of what happened (in Paris) on the game. “But when you’re on the pitch, you’re on the pitch”.
Arsenal dominated much of the second half but struggled to create clear-cut chances.
While a heavy defeat at Bayern in their last European outing could be excused given the quality of the opposition, there was no explaining away lacklustre losses against Dinamo and Olympiakos.
Don Balon’s report states a deal was actually reached back in September, but Arsenal have been holding back from revealing the news until Alexis Sanchez put pen to paper on an extended contract of his own.
“You’ve got (Mesut) Ozil, Cazorla, players of that quality too”. This result will give Pulis’ mean supreme confidence going forward as they climb to 12th after this determined, deserved victory.
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With all of this to contend with, we must now do our best with presenting a plausible, yet effective starting XI.
