Arsenal: Why Carl Jenkinson Has No Cause For Panic

Arsenal started Mathieu Debuchy over Carl Jenkinson and people are freaking out. But everyone needs to relax. There is nothing to see here.

Arsenal’s cult sensation Carl Jenkinson has made two starts now with his boyhood club and it’s giving people the warm and fuzzies. He was always supposed to make the grade and it looked like he was well on his way to that until he was suddenly loaned out to West Ham.

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Still, there was optimism. He would be back and he would fulfill his destiny.

Only Hector Bellerin was doing a much better job than anyone in the world (there, I said it) and Jenko had suffered a debilitating knee injury.

Now that he has returned, a deputy role to the young Spaniard looks to be his calling, but there is nothing at all wrong with that. Especially in times like this, when Bellerin is hurt. He started two matches in the young prodigies absence and he did a perfectly fine job, especially considering he had been out of football for a chunk of months.

However, against Bournemouth, he was noticeably absent, even from the substitutions bench, and naturally, everyone is losing their mind (more or less). Especially after Wenger said that he was prepared to use Gabriel or Francis Coquelin at right back, if the need arose.

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But there is no cause for panic, especially for Jenko. The young man had played two games in a week and that can be taxing on someone who has only just returned to full fitness from a knee injury.

This was most likely nothing more than a rest. We aren’t panicking that Francis Coquelin was on the bench. And just like Coquelin, Jenko was not rested because his career at the Emirates is over. He was rested because Wenger has a lot of guys to appease and these past three matches have been incredibly taxing.

Jenkinson will be back. Probably against Southampton. And he will do just as well as he did in his two starts. He does not provide the offensive push that Bellerin does, but then again, no one is like Bellerin.

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What Jenkinson provides is a a steady defensive mind. He is a solid fullback and his passion for the club will drive him. He won’t simply be given up after less than a month in the first team. Wenger would absolutely never stoop that low.