Wenger lets back-up Arsenal DM Coquelin stay on loan!! Is he MAD?

I cannot believe that Arsene Wenger has not decided to recall the French midfielder Francis Coquelin to Arsenal. Instead, the manager has allowed the 23-year old midfielder to stay with the Championship club Charlton for another month.

I know that Coquelin has only made one appearance for the Gunners so far this season, when he filled in at left back in the Capital One Cup defeat to Southampton and I agreed with sending him on loan in the first place. It will give the versatile Frenchman some valuable competitive football and some experience of the rough and tumble of English football, but we might need him.

Surely Wenger could have sent him back to Charlton in January when Mikel Arteta was back from injury and the winter transfer window was open. I have got a horrible feeling that Mathieu Flamini will now pick up an injury or get sent off and suspended. Then the decision to leave Coquelin on loan will look misguided and short sighted at best and plain daft at worst.

Who the hell is going to cover if Flamini does have to miss any games in the next few weeks? Not Diaby who is still not fit and not Jack Wilshere who is out for three months. Calum Chambers? Oh no we need him at right back. Someone from the academy? And who is the best defensive midfielder in the academy? That’s right Arsenal fans, it is Francis Coquelin.