Arsenal Preparing For Life Without Mathieu Debuchy

Arsenal had a pretty good thing going with their full back depth, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. It is time to prep for life without Mathieu Debuchy.

I had noted not long ago that this loan that Stefan O’Connor was going out on was rather peculiar. It is only going to last a month and then he will be back in the Arsenal red. At just 18 years of age, there is still plenty of time to develop him, so a loan for the remainder of the year seemed a more plausible scenario. Then it dawned on me. O’Connor will be set to return in January by this loan. That means that it will be in the midst of a transfer window.

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Expanding that further, I have deduced that Arsene Wenger is preparing for life without Mathieu Debuchy. It’s pretty obvious. Unless Wenger can use his massive persuasive skills to convince Debuchy to hang around on the off-chance that he gets used in the FA Cup than Debuchy will have to seek his fortunes elsewhere. The French right back was very outspoken about his situation.

“I really need to play. Didier Deschamps didn’t call me for the last two games, so it’s obvious, I’ve got to play more than I do, that’s why I want to talk to Wenger soon. I do have to accept it anyway, I can’t do otherwise. This situation doesn’t please me, but I have to accept it,” he said, as quoted by the Guardian. 

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Debuchy’s situation is an unfortunate one. He did not necessarily do anything wrong. It’s just that his understudy, Hector Bellerin, did everything right. Now Debuchy, who was purchased by Arsenal to be their full-time right back, has only notched 332 minutes on the pitch this year (via WhoScored). Not the best of situations to find oneself in. Particularly when he is just 30 years old and still in an important part of his career.

Didier Deschamps has made it perfectly clear that if Debuchy wants to be called on for the Euros, he is going to have to find more playing time. Arsene Wenger has to accept that as well. Debuchy is not old and declining. He is still incredibly effective and he is wasting away his international and club career.

By that token, and by the token of their shared nationality, Mathieu Debuchy is going to move on this winter. Unless Wenger, Debuchy and Deschamps can agree on a base number of games he can play in. But even then, seeing him in an Arsenal kit come February is unlikely.

So what do Arsenal do? They are going to have Hector Bellerin and Calum Chambers ready and waiting to play right back. However, I would hope by now that Chambers is past his right back phase and instead focused on his central defense phase. Right back is not a place for someone like Chambers. So that leaves Bellerin. Carl Jenkinson is still at West Ham until the end of the year, so he’s not an option.

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The other two options are O’Connor and Julio Pleguezuelo. O’Connor, as mentioned, is returning in January, so the idea may be to give him the call-up. Pleguezuelo is another Barcelona grad like Bellerin, whose versatility allows him to play all along the back line and in the midfield. Sounds like the perfect competition to launch to see who can replace Debuchy.

You can never really have too many options. The fact that losing class defender like Mathieu Debuchy would not really hurt Arsenal is testament to the depth they have at the position.