Francis Coquelin Injury Will Expose Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger's Inept Transfer Dealings

It was revealed this week that Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin will be out injured for around three months. It’s bad news for any club to lose one of their first choice midfield players, but especially so when you’re Arsene Wenger and you refuse to stock a sufficient backup option. What about a player even capable of ousting Coquelin from the team? Wenger entertains neither idea and now the Arsenal boss finds himself with his back against the wall — once again — thanks to the imbalance of his squad.

Coquelin is the only defensive midfielder Arsenal have who is worthy of a starting place on a top four Premier League team. Next in line will be Mathieu Flamini, who has just one EPL start and three substitute appearances to his name this season. The 31-year-old is going to be like one man trying to save the titanic in that overly-offensive Arsenal midfield. It takes a younger player to do what Wenger asks of his holding midfielder, and even Coquelin is still not quite proven at it, let alone Flamini.

The January transfer window could see Wenger go out and bring in a player in that area of the field, but why does it have to go wrong before Wenger can see the issues he has? Why could he not see in the summer that Coquelin was still unproven, and that if he was to underperform or become injured then the team would be at a great disadvantage?

Now the Gunners are going to have to run the gauntlet of the ruthless Christmas schedule with a light midfield, and really no defensive midfielder of substance. In the summer, Wenger should have been pursuing Morgan Schneiderlin to boost his midfield ranks. Coquelin would have had some real competition for his place, the two could play together in some big games and there would always be cover in the event that injury strikes.

That didn’t happen, and now injury has struck. Arsenal are short-handed, and once again Wenger is to blame.