Coquelin - Why Ramsey and Flamini works

Francis Coquelin says that Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini’s midfield partnership works because everyone at Arsenal is “pulling in the right direction”.

The French midfielder and Santi Cazorla had established themselves as Arsene Wenger’s first-choice pairing over the last year, but injuries at West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City respectively have ruled them out of the Gunners’ last four games.

Ramsey and Flamini have since come in to help Arsenal beat Sunderland, Olympiacos, Aston Villa and Manchester City, and Coquelin has been impressed with the duo’s performances.

“Every player is different but the most important thing is that the team continue to do well,” the 24-year-old told Arsenal Player. “They have both come into the middle. Aaron was playing a bit more out wide and he probably prefers to play centrally so he’s doing extremely well.

“Mathieu is also playing well and they have shown great stuff since the day they came into the team together in midfield. You can see the results and we have had big wins like the game against Manchester City. This season that is the good thing, that everyone’s going in the right direction, and that we know we have quality.

“If someone gets injured, the spirit in the squad is really good. As soon as someone comes in, they put a shift in and you can see that even when we lose a lot of players, because the team is still really strong. That’s really good for what we want to achieve, to win the title, so it’s great to be able to count on everyone.

“The good thing is that everyone gets along with each other in the squad and that makes a lot of things easier. When you go to tell someone off, you do it and everyone takes it in a good way. We all want to go in the same direction. It’s a great partnership.

“Aaron is a little bit more offensive. Mathieu was getting forward a bit more compared to what he did in the first games he played, but against Manchester City he showed a lot of discipline to play really well. He’s really important in big games and they both showed great quality, which is really good for the next game coming up.”