Francis Coquelin recently talked to Arsenal.com about the performance at home to West Ham. Arsenal lost 2-0 to the east London club on Sunday, and naturally that was a disappointing result for players and supporters alike. The Frenchman said: “It’s been a wake-up call for everyone.
“Considering the recent results we had before that, going really well in pre-season, it’s disappointing and it was not an Arsenal performance.” Hearing this from arguably one of the worst performers on Sunday is rather relieving from a supporter’s standpoint, and his quotes would indicate he will turn his poor form around for the next match away to Crystal Palace. He went on to say: “However, in bad things, good things can come out too.
“It’s good that it happened in the first game so that now we can pull ourselves together with 37 games left. We’ve got time to put things right and that needs to start on Sunday.” The squad will be using the West Ham match as motivation to play well in the future, as a lot of pundits have already written off their title chances. Coquelin himself was rather ineffective in defensive midfield, as Dimitri Payet had breezed by him many times on the day.
The Frenchman then used a club who could be a title rival come May as an example, saying: “Everybody realises that we need to put more in. When you look at different teams I think a lot of them are ready.
“You look at Manchester City when they played against West Brom, I think they played really good football.” His use of Manchester City as an example will motivate his teammates to play like them and make that change quickly, because the Manchester club are supposed to be a main rival for silverware rather than a team to aspire to be like from Arsenal’s point of view.
For the good of the squad and himself, Coquelin needs to reverse his form quickly, as competition in the from of Polish defensive midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak could potentially be on the way soon. Krychowiak is a tall, strong, combative defensive midfielder who has won the Europa League with Sevilla. He would add a different dimension to Arsenal’s midfield, contrary to Coquelin’s more mobile defensive style.
Coquelin then talked about the match at Selhurst Park this coming weekend, saying: “We need to pull ourselves together and it’s going to be a real test on Sunday because Crystal Palace have a really good squad.
“We know the quality we have and we need to respond straight away. We’ve been working really hard in training and we need to put all of the training effort into the game.” Coquelin will likely be tasked with trying to shut down compatriot Yohan Cabaye, the experienced, technical playmaker who also netted a goal last weekend. Palace have a bright, fiery attack, but if Arsenal can hold possession and not give up the ball in dangerous areas, they should have a great shot at three points.
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