Il Re said:
in your opinion who is better eboue or lauren, and would i be right in saying eboue would not have had much chances starting had lauren been fit?
in my opinion the injury to lauren has been a blessing in disguise, as eboue has blossomed when he has been given the chance, he has shown that he is quite capable of playing in important matches and (in my opinion) he is much better than lauren
Eboue's talent comes as no surprise to a lot of people, especially wenger. He was being touted to replace lauren eventually anyway, it was just that his defensive work needed improvement apparently. I remember watching him for arsenal when he was on trial, in austria, and in the amsterdam tournament - and it was quite obvious that he was extraordinary going forward, but had a lot of other areas of his game that needed working on. For example, he used to get caught out of position quite a lot, his defensive work wasnt as good as it is now, and he had the occasion lapses in concentration. It was always going to take him time to adapt to the arsenal style and arsene usually likes to spend 6-12 months trying to do that behind the scenes.
Like fabregas, his eventual emergence came due to injuries, but it was inevitable that he was going to play for the first team sooner or later imo. Right now though, it doesnt look like lauren will get his place back once he returns.