Arsenal’s AWFUL injury luck set to strike again?

While the injury list at Arsenal does seem to finally be easing, although we have heard that before a few times this season, our situation is still a lot worse than almost any other club in the Premier League. And it always seems to be that we meet clubs at just the wrong time.

This weekend, for instance, Mesut Ozil is probably not quite ready to return and Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey are still very doubtful to be able to make the squad, according to the latest injury news on Physioroom.com. At the same time, Stoke City look set to have two of their five injured players fit and available again.

And our luck does not look like improving the following week, as we travel to face the reigning champions Man City. They are currently having to do without three of their most important players in Vincent Kompany, Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero, but guess what? Not just one, but all three are pencilled in to be ready to return against the Gunners.

Physioroom.com have the Argentinean international striker rated as doubtful but a report in the Daily Mail now claims that their star man has stepped up his training after a positive medical check. Perfect timing eh, Arsenal fans? If we didn’t have bad luck we would have no luck at all.

Tags Aguero Kompany Man City

24 Comments

  1. And still he signs nobody.

    33 points from a possible 60.

    And people expect you to keep the faith in Wenger….

    The sooner he is gone the better….

  2. Arsenal has turned the corner.
    Nearly all our players are back.
    Only Wilshere is long term now.
    Soon we will have 2 quality teams available.
    Onward and upward into 2015.
    FA cup winners. EPL 3rd. ECL semi-final. 🙂

  3. There is a big problem shadowing Arsenal FC injuries.
    We all know we are affected by it but how much?
    We have recorded more injuries than any other team in the EPL during the last 10/12 years with a record of 889 injuries.
    In fact the second most injuries affected club is ManU with 791 injuries.

    From 2002 till 2014 (the article in the independent is dated 1st october 2014)
    Arsenal – 889
    Manchester United – 791
    Tottenham – 785
    Everton – 663
    Chelsea 620
    Manchester City – 595
    Liverpool – 551

    UEFA conducted an injury study published in 2011 that featured Arsenal and 49 other European teams.
    The study revealed that, a player has two injuries on average over a season. Thus, a squad of 25 players should have around 50 injuries per season (under21 aside).
    According to the data from PhysioRoom.com, Arsenal averaged 66.2 injuries per season between 2002 and 2011 (the worst season being 2009-2010, when the Gunners had 86 injuries in total)

    Arsenal midfielder-turned-scout Gilles Grimandi had a few suggestions about the cause of the problem.
    “We have so many injuries because we keep hold of the ball more than other teams and this exposes the team to more knocks from opponents.
    It is also because we have a lot of small-sized players, and the fact we take part in so many competitions increases risk of injury.”

    injuries due to our high possession rate.
    In the 2011-2012 season there were several teams with similar possession rates – Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Swansea were all recently above 55% average, and although Man Utd was leading the injury list at this stage, Swansea hardly had any injuries, and Man City had none at all.
    If the problem was solely connected to high possession rates, we’d see a correlation between average possession and injury count.

    injuries due to high amount of games played.
    We played our most amout of games in 2005/2006 and 2008/2009 while we played our least amount of games in 2009/2010.
    Injuries count during 2005/2006 and 2008/2009 were far lower than during 2009/2010 by a large margin but it is worth mentioning that we played our most amount of games during the preceding season (2008/2009).
    Fatigue could be carried over but stats shows us that this cannot be the reason behind our misfortunes as this was not recurrent.

    Before Gary Lewin left the club, Arsenal’s yearly (August-to-August) average amount of injuries was 59.4, but in the year following Lewin’s departure(2008)(for a permanent first-team physiotherapist role with the England national football team), the injury average skyrocketed to 76.3 per year – a 28% difference.
    We then recorded our highest count of injuries, 3 years in a raw since 2002.
    Our new physio Shad Forsythe is a blessed addition to our staff. No team fitness assessment was released yet but i’d like to hear his opinion on this matter.

    Injuries related to high amount of tackles from opponents due to our high possession rate.
    In 2009-2010 (which was the worst injury season in last ten seasons), Arsenal conceded the second-most fouls per game in the Premier League.
    Only Everton conceded more fouls.
    In addition, in the last five seasons Arsenal have suffered by far the most tackles in the Premier League– 4,938 tackles in total, compared to second-placed Chelsea with 4,423 and third-placed Spurs with 4,355.
    Obviously, with this data it’s no surprise that Arsenal leads the chart as the club with the highest number of injured players. Those are the only relevant stats.

    Training sessions intensity could be another factor and i will try and assemble as many data as i can in the near future.

    The new stadium and facilities where built to provide our club with the best infrastuctures allowing us to develop our athletes to the highest level.
    This was the entire reason why we went thru those 8/9 years of financial struggle. And i get it and supported it as i realized a few frustrating years is a small prize for future glories but we are still recording 25% more injuries than our direct rivals in average and i think this is the real unspoken problem at the root of our misfortune.
    what do you think?
    I want answers…

    ps: sources from: worldsoccertalk.com, ladyarse.co.uk, PhysioRoom.com and footballpurists.com (mainly but all data were verified).

      1. Injuries. = 25%.
        Chelsea and City = 25%
        Inability to adapt to above =25%
        Leading to preffered 4th place profitability model = 25%
        Just some ideas.

            1. The reason why Arsenal fails to
              challenge for the EPL are SEVERAL.

              1.Injuries mean we usually have only
              60-70% of our key players available.
              2. City and Chelsea with their money
              came and pushed us down the order.
              3.We continue to sign small players
              and play tika taka which does not
              work so well in the EPL and means being tackled more..
              4. Kroenke prefers 4th because it means being able
              to sell our best players buying cheaper replacements
              and paying lower wages meaning more profit.
              Injuries therefor are but one part of how our club has
              evolved over the past 10 years.

              1. Even Ray Parlour said when recently visiting Colney that Wengers methods are years behind seeing how the pace and power of the game has changed so much over the years. They were innovative and fresh 5-10 years ago but times a change and Wenger is long in the tooth and doesn’t seem capable of doing likewise. You know you can’t teach an old dog new tricks..

                Really I think this is a massive point. If one of your own returns and can’t believe what he his seeing then something/s must be terribly, terribly wrong from a training/preparation perspective.

                Surely this has some contribution to injury?

  4. Team 1.
    Szcz Debuchi Kos Mertz Gibbs
    Flamini Ramsey
    Walcott Cazorla Sanchez
    Giroud.

    Team2
    Ospina
    Bellerin Chambers New CB Monreal
    Coquelin Rosicky
    Ox Ozil Wellbeck
    Akpom.

  5. I am sure you are also upset because it prevented you from writing articles like

    1. Injury boost for Arsenal Since …..&…are out of the game against Arsenal.
    2. Why Arsenal will win the game against City.
    3. Arsenal must win against City because Kompany, Aguoro and Dezeko are out.

    You must stop this nonsense article, which claim Arsenal is going to beat other tram because they are hit with injury.Or Arsenal is going to be defeated because other teams are fit.

    Last I have read 2 or 3 articles which claims how Arsenal is going to win against Man utd because of their injury.And also there was an article which claims that Balotelli and Loveren are out of Liverpool clash with Arsenal. You must stop this.

    If Man utd ( with all their injury) manage to take 4 points from Stock.Why can’t Arsenal take the three points against Stoke at home.

  6. Lets get at least one of those CB:
    Mats Hummels
    Nevan Subotic
    Ron Vlaar
    Diego Godin
    Joel Matip
    Gerard Pique
    Matija Nastasic
    Kyriakos Papadopoulos
    Fabian Schar
    Virgil Van Dijk
    Antonio Rudiger
    Aymeric Laporte.

  7. And talking of Physio room, why is Diaby even listed?
    We will have a full and expansive team soon but what worries me is that even when our players are back they are just an injury waiting to happen, (Kos).
    One sprint, twist or innocuous challenge and out they go again.
    Gnabry, what’s going on with him?

    Wenger get some business done please.
    CB and DM a must, MF and attacking players would be a bonus but maybe not required, (unless Sanogo and Campbell leave).

  8. @rools.
    Exactly there are plenty to go after, problem is Wenger wants to sign a player for 1m and 1p!

  9. Luck plays a big part in walks of life.When Napoleon was losing generals and required a a general to be replaced he didn’t care which one as long as he was a lucky one.lm afraid Wenger who inherited the famous back 4/5 ran out of luck years ago.The sooner he’s gone the better for all concerned.
    P’S with good wishes.

  10. Luck is nothing to do with it (no such thing).

    There is preparation, effort and implementation. Wenger didn’t need to do anything for years when he adopted Adams, Keown, dixon, Winterburn and then he had them coaching and developing the likes of Cole, Campbell and Lauren on and off the pitch..(2nd Gen Wenger AFC defense)

    defense was never really wengers thing. He did bring in Viera and petit who were phenomenal (ball winners & creators above 5’2″) which created the perfect buffer for the team in both attack and defense. At that time we had Edu or the bench!

    Then after loosing the defense and our power midfield wenger seemed to adopt tic-a-tac football in the midfield in attempt to emulate Barcelona FC and their success. We have had it to this day, but a form that doesn’t provide the directness, punch and effectiveness of our richer spanish relatives.

    We instead choose to pass the ball back and forth around the defense and deep midfield (in an uneasy fashion) without drive, width and intent until we fluff it (we and not many others to be fair do not have the technical players of the quality of BFC.) This style coupled with antiquated training methods from the creatacios period and lack of squad depth means we invite injuries onto ourselves.

    So, perrrrlease stop with the ‘luck’ or no luck nonsense!

    We have only ourselves to blame.

    1. Apparently…Arsene has signed a Frank Sinatra tribute act for the annual “we came 4th” dinner and dance. He has requested ‘I did it my way’, ‘Just In Time’, ‘too close for comfort’ and ‘French foreign legion’.

      Based on current performances I would say this booking is premature if anything.

  11. @ArseOverTit
    You have hit the nail on the head here, e have been effectively left behind by the other clubs who have had more money to invest in facilities than we have
    and this has been coupled with the fact that our board are Not in any way interested in growing this facility to catch up with our opponants, nor are they interested in taking the control that Wenger has over all this and handing it to people that are interested in advancing the club as a football entity rather than a corporate animal that makes money from being marginally sucsessful but NOT a risk taking enterprise that wins big when it play big.
    Our board is populated with NON football heads who are relly only interested in the business model and the share price.

  12. I blieve emirate stadium is an ultramodern stadium with modern facilities, rumour also has it that some players wish to join because of this sorphisticated facilities. I want to believe training facilities are not outdated. I can’t speak about the training methods because I am not a profesional but the sooner AFC resolve this injury issue the better for all. I see injury as major enemy,their is no way a team will achieve great height with constitence loss of best player to injuries,esp at crucial season periods. AW confirm ozil is fit for stoke,ramsey next week

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