When he was 20 he played 17 games for us.
When he was 21 he played 22 games for us, including six CL appearances.
The issue for Coquelin was:
Between 11-13 Wenger's system was that of a deep playmaker and a box-to-box midfielder.
Wenger was dead set against using a DM and all the calls from fans and the media seemed to only make him more stubborn on the issue.
Wenger had also lost faith in the foreign players loyalty and favouring Brits.
Arteta and Song was Wenger's preferred duo in 11/12 and both were fit and healthy for the majority of the season.
Arteta and Ramsey was Wenger's preferred duo in 12/13 and both were fit and healthy for the majority of the season.
Both of those seasons were huge dog fights for CL qualification and survival. Wenger was very reluctant to through younger players into the mix.
Coquelin kept getting lots of small injuries K. Gibbs style.
That said he still managed to start as a DM away against Manchester United•, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiakos (twice) and Chelsea (ahead of Ramsey). Big, difficult games that he played well in.
He was also one of the big reasons we managed to salvage a win from 4-0 down at Reading and was man of the match against Schalke in the CL.
• It was 3-1 when he was subbed off at the 62nd minute, 8 minutes later it was 6-1. He was probably our best performer that day as Ramsey, Rosicky, Arshavin, Walcott and RvP stood around high up field watching us get wrecked.
He was given a two year contract extension in January 2012, started against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (where he was playing really well) but got injured for the rest of the season after being constantly battered by Ramires.
He was then sent on loan so he could get more consistent playing time to develop his game but Freiburg screwed us over. (Wenger realised he'd sold the squad short by the decision when he signed Flamini at the end of August.)
When he came back he had lost confidence and sharpness. He'd been asked to perform a role that didn't suit his abilities at all.
So actually prior to Freiburg, yes, he was good for us and he was in Wenger's plans. Afterwards no. But it was a shitty loan that the club should've seen coming.