Arsène Wenger has handed starts to Francis Coquelin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas in today’s FA Cup fourth round clash with Stoke City. The promising midfielders both play out of position however, with Coquelin slotting in at right-back and Emmanuel-Thomas leading the line as a striker.
Craig Eastmond continues his impressive run in the first-team with Reserve team captain Kyle Bartley joining Emmanuel Frimpong on the substitutes bench. Young Guns announced earlier today that Coquelin and Emmanuel-Thomas would be making their FA Cup debuts via Twitter, for more news like this plus opinions and news that might not make the website, make sure you follow us @YoungGunsBlog.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Is wilshere injured than? I bet he was to start but was judged not fully fit and replaced by Cesc. Great news that Ramsey makes the bench though
Le Coq is doing great! He should switch to this position permanently and take over after Sagna!
Embrace the irony Simon :p he misplaced like 8 passer in the first half. JET has been as bad though. Its Ive been saying all along, he isnt that good. Walcott very bad also, Fabiansky in fault for goal and Denilson and Cesc have been powerless until last 10 min or so. Praise to Eastmond and our best player, Big Sol. JET and coq off at 60, arshavin on left, vela middle, rosicky midfield, eastmond RB
I think the problem with Coquelin is that when he plays as a midfielder he’s always in space looking for the perfect pass, but as he’s playing at right back he hasn’t released he just needs to clear it or pass it simply. He’s made one or two decent tackles though.
JET’s also had a poor game, but Eastmond’s played fairly well.
As for the slightly senior players, Fabianski and Walcott are having shockers in my opinion :/
hopefully that puts the planks on here in place, you know the ones that say lets play jet, lets play coquelin it would be really good.
Is this not a little bit annoying to anyone else. It isnt that we arent winning trophies. It is that we seem disinterested in winning one. I was cool to see the reserve squad in the carling cup but in the fa cup too? In a competition where Man Utd, Liverpool, everton, sunderland all out and Tottenham has a replay, you would think we would see this as a good oppertunity, but no. Anyone after watching that game that can honestly say an aging Sol Campbell, Sylvestre, Eastmond, Jay Thomas, Troare are good enough to be playing important games for Arsenal are lying to them selfs. The 2nd goal was scored by 2 stoke players attacking 4 Arsenal defenders. Sol couldnt mark 1 guy and Eastmond was just standing there watching. How is it that Aston Villa, Everton, Sunderland, Tottenham all have better back up centerbacks than us? Like I said, it isnt that we arent winning titles, it is that we dont seem to really want to win one.
Sol was the best? No way. He always was behind Stoke players.
I personally think that lard arse Sol Campbell proved in today’s performance that he can’t do it at the highest level.
Well actually we don’t have enough player at the moment…
It is like we Wnger just picked a team he knew wasnt good enough and then Fabregas, just expecting Fabregas to win the game. At this rate, Fabregas will leave and no one could blame him for
…..for doing so.
I have been saying that it meens nothing to have a great team only to leave weak links in it, and everyone wanted to slate me for saying that. Yah ok….there are players that just arent good enough…point blank.
yeah, I was thinking the same thing… but we do have limited option, so can’t really blame AW..
It is funny because everyone supports a team, and every fan of that team has something to root for because every club has different goals. Example Fulham challenge for uefa cup spot, Burnley and wolves try to avoid relegation, Tottenham and everton aim for 4th place. Man utd and Chelsea aim for titles. Westbrom aim for promotion. Scunthorpe aim to avoid relegation, etc. If these goals are reached then it is like winning a title. There is something to celebrate. These teams atleast have something they are rooting for. As an Arsenal fan, I am starting to be confused on what our seasons goals are and what we are suppose to be rooting for. As a big club, i would think it would be a title? Is it champions league spot? It is like every year now we just already know where we are going to finish. 2nd to 4th in the league, semi finals in the champs league, which is a good thing dont get me wrong. It just makes it hard to root for anything. And like I said it isnt that we arent winning a title, it is that we dont seem to really care if we win won or not.
Giondono….we have limited options because we limit ourselves to those options. I am not saying go spend 100 million dollars but have a complete squad. 2 good centerback can be found for 7 million a piece and probly cheaper with Wengers scouting knowledge. A good goal keaper can be bought for 6 to 8 million. Most big teams have 2 ready now good Def mids. And yes a quality striker cuz when you watch us out play chelsea, Man Utd and liverpool only for Drogba, Rooney or Torres to score a couple goals from no where and knock us out of a competition, hurts.
Calm down guys [everybody is going overboard], the guys didnt get the passing game going plus some sloppy defending. Also we have injuries [Wilshere, Gibbs, Sagna, Diaby, Nasri, Van Persie, Djourou, Merida has ankle injury from a thump by Zack Knight] and some others like Theo, Rosicky, Ramsey, Clichy players that are just coming back [risky to throw all of them in and then get injured again] plus Song and Eboue away with their country. If we had fully fit squad then we would be able to field the type of team that we field last season.
For the third season running Wenger has taken the FA cup lightly in chase of other trophies…he has got it wrong the last 2 years, he must win the premier league or champions league this time around or he will in my eyes for the first time ever begin to take the shine of such a fabulous reign
Supergunner07- every team has the same injury issues. Joe Cole was out for how long? Everton had to play a season without a striker, Tottenham dont have a centerback that can play a weak without getting hurt, Liverpool have had there biggest players injured. That excuse is getting old. Big teams have a squad to deal with it because every year injuries happen Our 2 centerbacks were not hurt, our left back wasnt hurt, Arshavin was fine, Eduardo was fine, Ramsey was back, Rosicky was fine. We just chose a team that wasnt good enough.
You’re really disappointed aren’t u Shane..?
are u not?
I am pretty disapointed….real disapointed is starting a fire in the stands like Juventus fans did when they lost to Milan a few days ago..lol
JET had a great game today, as did Sol. They were our best 2 players by far with eastmond just behind. Coquelin looked like a fish out of water for the majority.
Tcrocker…LOL. Thats my only response to that.
chelsea are without drogba essien mikel and kalou they certainly arnt in a position to risk getting more injuries yet even theystill put out the best possible team against preston.
To me I would rather rest our centerbacks in a prem game verse a lower team because even if we lose, you can still make up for that. There isnt any 2nd chance in the fa cup.
Shane – The comments you make about Eastmond are rubbish. Why R U so negative about the lad. Are u by change 1 of these Coquelin fans who keep belly aching because Easty gets picked in front of him.
and which lower team are we playing in d next 4 weeks.. I see, aston villa, chelsea, manu n liverpool are lower teams compared to stoke right.. Very logical indeed.. One hates losing, but perspective is needed..
I cant be bothered to argue with you Shane, yeah we played unchanged line-up 5 games in a row [doh]
Yaniv..we just played Bolton twice. Last time I checked they were in the bottom three.
Yaniv…By the way , the point was that you can make up a lose in the prem but you cant in the FA cup.
Agree with SG07.
sol did ok today as for tweety jus shit end off. I just feel that these players just think cos were arsenal we don’t need 2 work as hard IMO but if we win the prem or champions league or even both no one gna even talk about this game again.Oyea Denilson shit just fukn shit.
theres alot of differing opinions about 2days game…firstly go easy on coq-hes 18 playing out of posistion against good opponents away in a makeshift team..jeeeesus!!! also how can people seriously say campbell was poor-1st game of his season and nothing got past him expect a PINPOINT cross believe me hes better then wes brown,c.davies,dawson,kompany,skrtel so it was a no brainer,dont get me wrong but altho eastmond is ok and played fine-what will he actually bring to arsenal?? he has no real strengths? walcott again done nothing to prove me wrong in thinking he is the MOST overhyped player in world football-he is actually a championship player and i think he wouldnt even excell in that league anymore!! maybe im being harsh but come on!….jet is ok but not for arsenal and vela is not a winger we must loan him out to a prem side he needs games through the middle..denilson is ok but only ok i find it hard to believe brazil could produce a midfield 3 of lucas,anderson,denilson!!hahah any chance of a forward pass!!!!lol
Just read these post and i must say shane is a absolute PRAT!!!
Are you really an arsenal fan?! You sound like a 12yr old
For me Sol had a great game, if he was’nt there we could of conceded earlier. JET was ok and with a better pitch and better players around him u would of seen more. I’d have him over vela any day. Vela and Walcott need to really think about there future at arsenal. I’m probably theo’s biggest fan but even i’m losing patience.
Wenger is not at fault for this result. We had several injuries and with 4 massive games coming up he had to rotate.
What is your thought of the game J?
Phillip…you are a joke. Your are an idiot. You said Vela needs to think about his future at Arsenal..what a joke. I dont think there is another team in the prem including the ones that are in the religation zone, that would have old sol campbell and Sylvestre playing together especially a “big club”. Also I dont get everyones complaints at Coquelin when Eastmond was crap out there. You know what, you cant even discuss football on here cuz most of the people just say boring cliches and also I think like losing. Owell.
Gt ova it! So we lost wat u gon do abt it. NADA!! If A.W had playd da 1st tim En 2 mo of our playerz got injured u wud prob hav bin pissd so b happy dat we cn luk 4wad 2 da villa game wit out any new injuries. En 4 thoz who said Eastmond en JET were shit. Wat match were u watchin?
We screwed up, lets move on.
Without any intention to argue anyone, I honestly don’t consider this defeat as a big disappointment. To me, this defeat is simply caused by the injuries we have towards the game and the tough fixture we have ahead. Luck played a big part on this one (unlike the 2 semifinals defeat we had last season or our miss out on league title 2 seasons ago), that’s why it is easier for me to swallow it..
Cheer up guys..
F**k Chelsea u lucky bastards. Ivory Coste hav jus bin eliminated so Drog en Kalou cuming bak afta Kolo’s Gol was disallowd dip into Xtra time. As an African(Zambian) dis is rong bt I hop Cameron r oso K.O. 2moro.
Shane, I’m disappointed we lost. But I sensed we might have trouble in this game. I don’t think you should be too surprised that Wenger has prioritized the Champions League and the Premiership title, in place of the FA Cup. He has done it before. It doesn’t make it entirely correct but in his eyes he must feel that we can win the league and possibly make the final or win the Champion’s League. I think we can too, and I’m going to root for that believe me!! We’ll get some players back soon and we really could close the deal. I thought JET actually held the ball up very well, and even though he didn’t get any shots he passed back to the midfielders and the wingers pretty well too. I saw him track back a couple of times as well. I still feel his best role might be to deputise for Diaby maybe?? As for Eastmond, I’m not gonna regugitate a meal we ate together a few days ago if ya know what I mean. Walcott on the other hand is gone for me. It will take a huge change or SOMETHING for him to improve. I know he just came back from injury, but he was playing like this even before he was injured. I saw him in the Uefa under 21’s as well and he was god awful. Sad but I really don’t know if he is up for this level. Maybe the premiership, but not Arsenal. If we were out of the title race, Wenger might have put out a more experienced and higher quality side, but seeing that we are right near the top, he felt that he had to rest some of the crucial players. Again there is an argument for both sides, but to me the Premier League is the most important competitions are the ones that Arsenal are still involved in. And I really think we can win!!
I meant to say the most important competitions are the ones we are still involved in:S
Sol was ok. JET was promising and had ‘PERSONALITY’. Walcott will NOT make it. Vela needs to get his act together if he wants a future. Coquelin showed little, etc etc etc Bottom line is a club of our size should be able to put them in to our advantage not when we have to.Silvestre !? why oh why are we playing him why have we got him .We should have 4 good center backs – we have two and now Sol who at least is an improvement on S’vestre. Tell us the truth about the finance Arsene!!!
dont forget that playing there is hard even for experience players, our young players have done good job there, and with 9 changes it was nearly clear that we gonna lose that game. I think that Wenger is concentrated more in EPL and CHL, after the elimination of Man utd and Liverpool from fa cup
I didn’t see the game but if Jet was played as a forward I’m not surprised he struggled. Definitely his worst position IMO. He can do a job at reserve level but that’s it.
Walcott was utterly horrible today but then we have to remember how many games he has had out. He is also a bit of a luxury player if you like…if the team is playing badly he is not going to drift in and help out, but if Arsenal are playing well he can be a good outlet. It is Vela I am most disappointed with. To be honest I have never really rated him in an Arsenal shirt. Just what does he bring to the team? 5 starts, 11 sub appearances and just one Cardboard Cup goal. I dont rate him at all right now. As mentioned above he could do with being loaned out I think. Fabianski should just be taken out and shot. He made Almunia look like he has nerves of steel!
(benny)… after the eilimination of manure n liverpool we shud of focused on it as we cud ov won it
Fabiansky isn’t good enough for our team. We have one great GK and he is on loan with Brentford. I would pick Fabiansky ahead of the useless Spaniard but neither are good enough for this level.
Mostly it was a powerless performance. No aggression, no hunger. Eduardo and Arshavin were shockingly bad. Ramsey almost turned the game around but Arshavin and Dudu should be ashamed of themselves, JET and Walcott actually did better despite not playing well at all. It’s so frustrating to see Walcott and Vela. They have so much talent but fail to deliver time and time again. Not long until Wilshere will get ahead of them, and even Sunu could.
JET played well actually, as did Eastmond. They were only outdone by Sol who did some very good things. Fabianski was at fault for the first goal but Traore and Silvestre were the weak links by a mile along with Walcott who is far too one-dimensional to be constantly sticking to that right side. How do you solve a problem like Theo and Vela? Easy, just switch them. I can’t stress how much i’ve hoped AW will do that (not just today) but he just doesn’t do it. Fabregas was alright and Denilson doesn’t do it for me but people can’t knock JET and Eastmond. They impressed somewhat.
Teams lose games. I would’ve picked the same fixture list (minus Fabregas) if you look at our upcoming games: Villa away, United home, Chelsea away, Liverpool home. We also have Porto mixed in there somewhere. Did you really want Wenger to go for it?
I do rate the FA Cup and it is/was our best chance at a trophy. It’s just unfortunate that this tie was placed right in front of the most important games of the season, and so I would’ve chucked it as well. We are so battered with injuries that our normal backup side shouldn’t even have played today.
I know that winning this would end our “trophyless” drought but so would winning the league. Anyone who says we can’t has absolutely no basis for their argument because this season is hard enough to predict as is. We’ve had 3 different teams at the top in the last week itself. As long as we’re still within reach of the CL and PL, I don’t mind not being a part of the FA Cup.
I wish we had won of course, but I’m not much bothered. There was little choice but to rest the starters and play inexeperienced players. Anyone who thinks that risking our starters in the FA Cup just before a run of Villa, United, Chelsea, and Liverpool has got a screw loose. The FA Cup is an important competition but, faced with our current injury crisis, harsh decisions about which competitions matter most had to be made. I think it’s clear that the Prem and the CL are by far the most important trophies compared with the FA Cup. AW did exactly what he should have done. We are in decent positions in both the Prem and CL and shouldn’t risk that for lesser competitions.
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As for the match, the youngsters were average at best, but, just for some perspective, none of them delivered the absolute shockers that Wilshere and Merida did against West Ham a few weeks back. I’m far from ready to condemn the likes of Copuelin and JET and Eastmond (or Merida and Wilshere, for that matter) as useless on the based on their first couple of performances in extremely intense, highly important matches. That is the behavior of overly emotional idiots. It wasn’t great but is was far from terrible. In fact, in relation to veterans like Campbell and Sylvestre, it was somewhat encouraging. Those youngsters are taking the first steps of their careers and the veterans have vast experience in matches of this import, but still, the vets weren’t all that much better than the youngsters.
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Overall, tough loss, but far from a dissaster for the season. With his selection today, AW has clearly made the Prem and the CL our primary goals, if he hadn’t already done so. If we can gain between 8-10 point from this difficult run of four matches than our title hopes will be very much alive.
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Chin up gents. Injuries forced us to sacrifice our FA Cup aspirations for the sake of keeping our best players fresh/fit for a tough run of Prem matches. It was a tough decision but the right one without question. Our season is still alive for the biggest prizes. Let’s support the boys as they go and collect them!
we are in the 2nd place in the league and we can actually win it. wenger did nothing wrong. how the hell did stoke get a goal in 2 min I don’t know but JET was looking very good to me. I felt like he should be playing somewhere in the middle from now on. He got too much vision, intelligence, techniques and strength and if you play him upfront he wont develop to a world class playmaker he can be. I wanted him to switch place with Vela but ohh well. Walcott was exactly what I expected, BAD. I don’t care if he have been injured for a long time he sucked big time. Handle JET the winger spot and he will make that his own within 6 months. Next year the competition will be tougher for walcott when Watt, sunu, wilshere, jet and lansbury is in the team. he will NOT make it. All those names is special and with Nasri, arshavin and rosicky available I see no chance. I thought all our youngsters who played today showed alot or promise and the future is secured.
Every opinion is as valid as any other – so here’s mine :
We looked totally, hopelessly & frighteningly out of our depth for the 1st 20 minutes. Fabianski like a rabbit caught in headlights, Silvestre looked like a raw teenager – as di le Coq, but his excuse is that he is one – we couldn’t get the passing game going & looked like we were going to be swamped.
But it didn’t happen. We got a grip on the game, got the equaliser & were running the show 2nd half. If Wenger had left htings as they were, we’d have got a replay or even pinched a win. After a shaky start, JET had got his eye in & looked the man most likely to make something happen. But we made 3 changes that disrupted our rhythm, Silvestre got an injury while making a heroic challenge & would have gone off if we could have brought another guy on.
The substitutions shot us in the foot. If we win @ Villa on Wednesday & turn over Man U, sacrificing the FA cup will lokk like a master stroke. If not, another season without silverware looms & some hard, hard questions will need to be answered…
Oh, meant to add, Vela is hopeless & should go. Distribution is bad, awareness worse & for a striker, he has no eye for goal. I’d rather give Jay Simpson a run.
I cant believe people are turning on Vela. Do we all already forget some of the bits of magic he pulled of last year? Ok he isnt playing his best but still.
It is starting to annoy me how every english player aside from walcott gets a break while you condemn every Foreign player that has an off game. Jay Simpson, Sanchez Watt, and Jay Thomas are no where near the talents that Vela is. Eastmond played just as bad as Coquelin at right back.
JET is a great talent, no doubt about it. he has much more potential than Watt and Jay Simpson IMO
I didn’t see the game but I’m glad he actually did good.
Vela is a great
jets first touch let him down a couple of times and he made a few poor passes but other than that he impressed
Traore is TERRIBLE!!!!! I thought fullbacks were supposed to defend. DO YOUR JOB YOU IDIOT. I know he has had a few good games, and going forward he is good, but his defending is non-existent. It just isn’t there and I hope that in the big games Clichy will be available.
I agree with Shane about the English players getting a huge pass when it comes to ratings. It’s like English players operate with some type of affirmative action plan in place. You can’t criticize them harshly or even judge them accurately for fear that they may not make it at the club. It’s rediculous.
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That said, I watched the first half of the match again this morning and JET actually performed considerably better than I gave him credit for. His touches could’ve been sharper, but he didn’t look at all out of place for his first start in such an important match. I stand by my belief that this kid can be a huge player for us. Not saying he’s the only one, as I feel the same way about Ramsey, Wilshere, Merida, Vela, Frimpong, Afobe, Aneke, and maybe Ozyakup. I think Walcott has every chance of still turning into a great player, but the opporunity to do at Arsenal will get narrower and narrower with each mediocre performance. I think AW understands this kid and knows he has the ability, but I have been surprised at how long it’s taking him to best learn how to use his great weapons.
to all those tht are campbell, eastmond and jet aint gd enuff clearly need to fukk off and support chelsea or sumthin coz they all had gd games for the amount of games they have played and eastmond is full on class which why wenger left him on 4 the full 90 minutes. wenger even gt it wrong bringin off emmanuel-thomas against stoke becuase he is better equipped to plauy stoke than the ones he put on. if u wanna talk bout ppl tht played shit try you lots favourite frenchman coquelin, silvestre and walcott who im startin think should relegated to the reserves right now. he has had so long to progress but its not happening ATM. there is so many young players at the club who should start ahead of him like merida and watt, even henderson and randall
*No need to get abusive and attack other commenters*
Eastmond is much better than coquelin and he proved it yesterday,he looks like a proper first team player now and out of all the fa youth cup wininng team hes doing the best and i think hes big part of wengers plans now and is takin a similar path to gibbs. coquelin aint on his level and you know it
Eastmond’s not better than Coquelin in my opinion – Coquelin’s got some skills in the tackle and can pick a pretty decent pass – don’t forget he was playing well out of position at right back. I hope he does well obviously, local boy n all and still early days of course, but i’m yet to see anything particularly impressive from Eastmond. Thought J-E-T did really well considering he hasn’t been a striker for long and that was his first start for us. He certainly got about the pitch well and was giving his all – not many players with that size have a creative eye like him – almost threaded through a few good balls- one for the future certainly, could be very awkward for defenders with that stature. Sol did decent too, had my doubts but reallly pleasantly suprised, and with more match-fitness he should be good cover for Gallas and Vermaelen + he’s been there and done it all already which can’t hurt in the dressing room during the run-in. On Silvestre: never been a fan though until he got that knock he was having a relatively decent game for him. He still could have given away a needless penalty and I could have cut out the cross for the third goal with my eyes shut. Not a hater on our players like a lot of Arsenal ‘fans’ but he has to be the one guy on the fringes of our squad who would really make me fear the worst if he came in for any league or european game. On another negative- never seen Walcott play that badly- hope he can sort it out sooner rather than later as that pace of his can be a ferocious weapon, on that form he’s goin to have no chance against Cashley or Evra. I know it’s never gona happen but I just wish we would splash out for Edin Dzeko- league would be over this season and he would top score next season – just imagine him, ‘shava and Van Persie in a front three with Cesc behind, Diaby or Nasri, Song DM and our great back 4 – sounds like the Invincibles Mark II to me. Really hope Merida stays by the way, he will be an immense player in the future if he stays with us – impressed almost every time I see him; if he leaves Wenger and Co he’ll more than likely just end up another Lassana Diarra which would be a real shame as he could reach the same heights as Fabregas.
A lot of misunderstanding here. Let me clear up.
1) Coquelin actually had a GOOD game. He looked very good there. Strong, quick, Sharp , willing to make a one touch pass. In fact he was operatng on a higher level than Walcott mentally – Walcott didnt get it when Coquelin was making early passes to him. Nor did Walcott protect him defensively.
2) Eastmond also look quite good at DM. Better than Song and Flamini did when they first played in the first team.Doesnt anyone remember this? Jeez….