It was quite an interesting Premier League weekend with the table shaking yet again, as things changed at the summit and foot of the leader board. Arsenal and Leicester City were the big winners at the top with both Manchester clubs dropping points. At the bottom, there were big wins for Newcastle and Bournemouth, as they triumphed over stronger opposition you’d expect them to lose too.
Arsenal will begin their FA Cup defense with a home clash against Sunderland in January. I was wishing for an ‘easier’ fixture but I can make do with Sunderland. The Gunners have a very impressive record against the Black Cats and I’m hoping for the lads to turn up when Sam Allardyce and his hordes come to town.
Elsewhere, struggling Chelsea hosts Leyton Orient or Scunthorpe, Manchester United hosts Sheffield United and Norwich welcomes Manchester City to Carrow Road. The most tasty fixture of the third round is the match between Tottenham and high-flyers, Leicester City.
The full list of FA Cup third round fixtures can be found here.
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It’s never a nice feeling training so hard with your teammates only to find yourself on the bench on match day on a consistent basis. ‘Big teams’ like Arsenal feature in four competitions with the Premier League and the Champions League having a bigger priority than the FA Cup and the Capital One Cup. It’s only normal for managers to feature their strongest XI in the Premier Division and Europe’s elite competition while the fringe players get a run out in the latter named competitions.
Towards the tail end of last season, injuries to Bacary Sagna’s replacement, Matt Debuchy, saw Hector Bellerin get an extended runout at the side and like Francis Coquelin, he impressed everyone, thereby justifying his place in the side. On Debuchy’s return to full fitness, it was quite hard for the Frenchman to win his place back in the side.
This season, Bellerin has picked up where he left off and it has been hard for Debuchy to get some minutes under his belt. Bellerin has made 16 appearances as opposed to Debuchy’s seven and more importantly, Debuchy seems to has lost his place in the French National Team to Bacary Sagna that was struggling to find game ime in Manchester City but an injury to Pablo Zabaleta has allowed him to feature regularly at City.
Speaking to RMC Radio, Debuchy has voiced his discontent of lack of playing time and he has stated that he’s open to move out of Arsenal as early as January,
“I’m waiting to talk to the boss, we talked earlier in the season on the subject. I have to accept the competition [from Bellerin] at the moment. But currently, I need playing time. It’s clear that I need to talk again with the boss.
“I’ll look at the offers to move. “I love England and the football here, but why not return to France. In the summer Wenger told me we’d talk if I was not happy with my situation in December. It is now December.
“Of course I would be disappointed not to make the Euros, it’s probably my last chance to play in such a situation.”
In Carl Jenkinson, the Gunners have an able deputy that has come of age at West Ham and they will be more than willing to flush Debuchy away to bring him into the team. However, Jenkinson is scheduled to return back to the team this summer, so if Debuchy leaves in January, the Gunners will be relatively short of options in that position. Yes, Calum Chambers can serve as a right back, but he’s also a back up for the center back and now, an educated holding midfielder.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Wenger manages the situation.
Sayonara.
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