Francis Coquelin has already returned to training!

The midfielder limped off during Arsenal’s 3-0 thrashing of Chelsea last Saturday and, since it was the same knee he’d suffered a crucial ligament injury on previously, everyone, including Arsene Wenger, feared the worst.

However, for once, it seems as if the Football Gods were on our side and the Frenchman should only be sidelined for three weeks, according to the boss.

During his press conference ahead of Burnley, Wenger seemed optimistic over the 25-year-old’s progress.

“[Coquelin’s recovery is much quicker than we expected ] because his ligament was not damaged as we thought,” the boss said.

“He is keen to start again but we have to be cautious. We have plenty of games coming up but for us now we work in cycles of three, week by week we play three games, so we have done Chelsea, Basel and it’s now to show that we can finish well the week.”

Coquelin was even in training on Saturday ahead of our Premier League clash against the Clarets, which is certainly a good sign.

Although having Coquelin out for a long period of time wouldn’t be catastrophic considering we now have sufficient cover in his position, it’s still hugely preferable that we have a full, fit squad.

It’s good to see that his knee injury wasn’t as bad as we first thought and he’s healing well; how often do we get to say that?