The case for and against blaming Wenger for Arsenal injury woes

I am talking about one Arsenal woe in particular here, the injury crisis that has left the squad stretched to breaking point and even more specifically the name of Alexis Sanchez being on that injury list.

Arsene Wenger was always going to come under fire for this, especially after he made the unwise decision of telling the football media about the ‘hamstring alert’ that the Chile international had early last week. So we now have people like John Cross in The Mirror blasting the Arsenal boss for taking too many risks with the striker as well as not signing enough players in the summer to be able to rotate his squad.

Cross is an Arsenal fan and is clearly frustrated but he may have gone too far in ‘guessing’ that Wenger ignored advice from the Arsenal medical staff on Alexis. And another report in The Mirror carried the latest on a long line of rants from the Dutch fitness coach Raymond Verheijen, who seems to spend his life waiting for another Arsenal player to get injured so he can attack Wenger, despite never having worked with the Frenchman.

That report also suggests that the blame may lie with the player himself as he has previous form picking up injuries because he simply refuses to rest or take it a bit easy in a game. An ESPN report suggests the same and points to the on fire Leicester striker Jamie Vardy who has been playing through the pain barrier and will continue to do so.

Then we have the new Liverpool boos Jurgen Klopp telling Daniel Sturridge to basically man up and admitting that he wants to rest players but can’t. So is all the criticism of Wenger a bit unfair? I would say so.

Tags Alexis Sanchez

12 Comments

  1. Only reason why we wont win Epl is Wenger, we all knew what will happen if Coq gets injured, we all knew what will happen if Walcott gets injured, so why didnt Wenger know? Idiot blowing perfect opertunity to win Epl, every season same shxt, next season we will win it HAHAHA

    1. Perhaps you are the one who is an idiot because your article is just mere speculation and you insult Wenger! Why do you make such hard remarks simply because Arsenal is just 2 points off the top? Any team is bound to lose points and they will as we have seen this season. It is just a question of patience to see whether Arsenal can cope without some players. What would you say if Arsenal regains top spot after uttering all those unsavoury words? Would you recant? We all want to win but let no one be under the illusion that there are some people, be it Wenger or the Board, who just don’t care about Arsenal’s fate! This is very far-fetched and unrealistic. It is true we all feel pain when we don’t do well but in life things don’t work like a clock. Who expected Chelsea to perform so poorly this season? At the start of the season everyone was tipping Chelsea to retain the trophy but where are they now? Doesn’t Chelsea have a big squad? Doesn’t it have quality players? Does it lack resources? Is the Chelsea manager not one of the best in EPL? Why then should Chelsea perform so dismally? As a gooner and responsible person I often get incensed when I read this kind of abusive stuff! Can’t we express our points without insults? Is it lack of civility that leads to this kind of behaviour? It is sad to say the least!

      1. I actually predicted Chelsea’s slump in pre season,
        But I was wrong about Moaninho getting the sack by Christmas… ?

        Calm down mate, this is football and as far as I can remember there has always been swearing, spitting and abuse involved in it.
        You should take a step back and look around at what’s going on in the real world… Civil? .. Where?

  2. and now rivals constructing bigger stadiums, while we needed 10 years to even start buying players, how much time will need chelsea hahaha, we will lose only advantage, truth is without Usmanov we wont compete with Barca or Real.

  3. Santi Cazorla knee injury has been confirmed as ligament damage, rumoured to be out of action for three months. it’s a joke.
    All down to the Wenger. If we had bought at least 2-3 outfield players in the summer the squad could have been rotated more often. But the likes of Cazorla Alexis and Özil etc are playing every game in all competitions because we have no other players to take their place.

  4. Cazorla and Coquelin out for 3 months???

    Damn!!!!

    Ramsey will need to play box 2 box and play well.
    DM….Who knows?? Flamini I guess or Chambers

  5. Good news @Twig.

    Time to see Rambo in his favoured role back.
    #Rambo

    Bad news : We will miss Santi and his presence.

  6. Santi is a huge loss. Santi and Mesut owned CM

    But Ramsey is at his best in Cazorla’s position (even though Santi is WC) rather than RW

    OX can play RW
    Campbell LW

    Not ideal but without Santi, Alexis, Theo, Danny, Jack, Thomas our options are limited

  7. You have to look at the Chilean boss who practically played him under the statement “Sanchez does not want to rest with hamstring injury on the horizon and i won’t say no to it” situation. Wenger has to buy a CDM who can actually protect the back four with quality. And the situation regarding the transfer ban of signing under-age players should be evaluated carefully by Barca if they want a piece of meat from the clubs they are chasing. If they are plotting to bring in anyone of the top rated players from the setup of these clubs anybody can practically run-over them due to their bad financial wage bill ratio and their financing of the club without the brand image where the proposition of losing Messi or Neymar is now a possibility. If they can’t get the sale of name rights of the stadium they are doomed.

  8. Let’s not forget Wenger allowed Santo to continue Santi to play on one leg. He took Ramsey of instead. Santi’s knee got bend the wrong way prior to Ox coming on. There is not telling how much more Santi hurt his ligaments by not being taken of immediately. I would have taken him of even if we had no substitutes left.

  9. 2 main reasons for our injury crisis. Not signing high quality players to the main squad, and not resting/rotating players properly.

    That is apart from some of our key players being injury prone…

    All of it comes under the responsibility of AW.

  10. Thank you Wenger for setting the stage for the worst season in the last ten years. Sadly, instead of a title, we will see spuds emerging from our shadow and the first fifth place in the EPL in a looong time for Arsenal.
    Hopefully Guardiola will replace Arsene next season.

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