Arsene Wenger was not specifically bemoaning the crippling Arsenal injury list that he has had to cope with for the last two seasons at least, but you could forgive the boss for cursing his luck. There have been many reasons why Arsenal have not been crowned champions of England since that historic invincibles campaign over 10 years ago, such as having to sell our best players while Chelsea and Man City were bankrolled by billionaires, but you could say that with better luck on the injury front we would not have had to wait so long.
Arsene Wenger certainly seems to think so as his comments from today’s post match interview, reported by the Arsenal website, show. The Frenchman was talking about the great recent form Arsenal have shown since getting a few key players like Ramsey, Ozil and Giroud back from the treatment room.
He said, “We missed important players at the start of the season where we dropped too many points. If you look since everybody’s been back and available, the number of points we have made shows we have the quality to fight at the top.
“When you start the championship with the players coming back from the World Cup not available and having big players out for three or four months, we played six games in the Premier League and won one. You have a mountain to climb after. We are a consistent side and consistency is linked with quality.”
It is hard to disagree that we suffered from all those injuries this season and would have been much closer to, or even above, Chelsea otherwise. And you could say the same for last season, with the losses of Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott, Podolski and the Ox coincided with our fall from the top spot.
You could even go back and say that Arsenal would probably have won the title in 2008 but for that nightmare leg break for Eduardo. We were five points clear going into that game but then went five without a win and finished four points behind Man United.
If you look at our record in 2015, with 10 wins and two losses from 12 games, earning 2.5 points per game, that would give 95 points from 38, the highest Premier League points total ever. So do you agree that our injury problems have denied Arsenal the title?
Off topic but can the ‘COQ’ win PFA young player of the season?!
I think it’s for under 23 year olds? I think Kane is poised for it..
who’s kane????????
oh yeah i forgot about kane.
I strongly think wenger has a point. we were hit by a number of injuries early in the season and it effected our performance, we had no one leading our attack. Now that Giroud is leading the front line and scoring for fun you can see the difference. If we have all our players fit we are by far the best team the world has ever seen…COYG…Still buzzing from yesterdays demolition….revenge is f…kin sweet
Wenger: “Good job lads, now lets lose a couple of games, we need to go back to 4th position”
#footmemes
Your “joke” didn’t make me laugh, but your name did. Because of South Park. So, here is a pity like for ya!
I do agree with him but the frustrating part is that no defender was bought in the summer. That is the real reason that we were so poor during that period.
OK genius.. How about next time you come in and we talk about how we all hate RVP and Ashley cole.. geez
It took a Flamini injury for Wenger to recall Coq. If Flamini never got injured…
Totally agree.Coq has made all the difference without him we would be struggling to get top 4
Agreed, their were hardships in defence but overall our defence has been strengthened immensely in the wake of that frustrating period.
Gabriel, Bellerin, Monreal, Coquelin have now all emerged as serious players. Debuchy will return and looking ahead we have to feel a lot more secure defensively.
IMO the injuries to our defence cost us a lot more than our deep attack. Despite the improvement Coquelin has changed the whole team’s mentality. There’s no way we could have pressed as hard as we did vs liverpool with Arteta or Flamini in Coquelin’s place.
Another defensive minded midfielder should be first priority IMO. We get that sorted and we’re as deep and strong as City and Chelsea…
Haha actually reminisced a little…
Comparatively we had Sagna and Gibbs going through extended periods on the sidelines backed by Santos and a very young Jenkinson with Flamini filling in at LB on occassion…
Monreal, Debuchy, Bellerin, Gibbs, Chambers, Jenkinson. Wow….
Off topic,
just checked ever reliable WhoScored for some player statistics. In overall summary we have 5 players among the best 10 of all Premier League!
Sanchez #2, Özil #4, Santi #5, Giroud #8 and Le Coq #10. We are doing something right!
True, those injuries really f*cked us up and we were rock bottom for a bit. But some good came from it. There was a time Wenger was benching Santi and Alexis, those injuries to Wilsh/Ramsey/Ozil got them game time. We never would have had Coq without a Flamini and Arteta injury. Giroud’s injury got us Welbz. Giroud saw his new competition up front and now he can’t stop finding the back of the net. That Koscielny injury made AW consider getting another CB which he did thankfully. In others’ absence, Monreal has stepped up to the plate and is now one of our most consistent players. Ozil got buff like a mofo and is stronger on the ball. And Hector, jesus Hector can play – what a goal he had yesterday.
Of course I would rather be on top of the table, but I think that crappy start to the season will be better in the long run for the seasons that follow. We finally have found some rhythm and cohesiveness. Wenger seems sharper than ever. And look how deep our roster is. That’s my bright side to our series of unfortunate events.
hope Ramsey and Kos ain’t going anywhr near the physioroom……. Le coq must be borrowing a Leaf from viera! Nice
Also off-topic but when is St. Totteringham’s Day? Must be close..
I fully agree with Wenger on this one but i blame him for it…not the injuries but the fact that he knows our injury record and still insisted on not buying a CB before the start of the season…oh and for believing flamini and arteta are good enough DM
Is it me or is Cazorla better at B2B position than Ramsey,Wilshere and Arteta?
He is more disciplined than any of them and understands the dynamics of the game,during that period when Liverpool were in charge he was right there besides le coq making sure we are defensively stable…
I feel like we don’t need to buy a schniederlin type of player,he is more like a B2B player and we have plenty of those(Arteta,Ramsey.Wilshere,Diaby and even Rosicky and Cazorla can play there)
Rather we should invest in another out and out DM…e.g Wanyama,Krychowiak etc…someone disciplined like le coq.
Agree – we need a 2nd quality DM to help with top games in both EPL and CL.
Le Coq was great again yesterday, his interceptions are key – BUT in the middle part of 1st half there were times he was isolated. If Markovic had scored game result might have been different.
As it was we blitzed the Scousers!!!!!
COYG
didn’t know arteta is a b2b -.-
last year we had a good start but then our form dipped down ,this year we had a bad start but have found form in the last couple of months so next year should be ours if we keep every body fit which is (now) not impossible!!
Le Coq is turning in2 a DM beast,
off topic:what would be the perfect score for when the 2 manchester clubs are meeting next week??
Said it before and I’ll say it again this current crop of players isn’t far from a title winning squad but we must improve in key areas if we are to have a genuine title run. Injuries or not fixtures like Stoke away, Hull at home, Leicester away cost us. Its great we’re in sumptuous form BUT there were a lot of games that we simply failed to shoe up and it cost us. The Stoke debacle being 3 – 0 down in the first half has little to do with injuries. We were all over Spurs at home yet we only managed a draw. The same could be applied to the United game.
At this level its fine margins but until we stop making things tough on ourselves we’ll always be so close but not quite. As for the assertion of without the injury crisis w’d be that much better off who knows? Chances are the extended break for Ozil and Giroud has done more good than bad.
The difference between where we are now and winning the league was no giroud and no coquelin from the start. That is it, next season we need cover for le coq, there isnt a whole lot more we NEED to challenge.
Next season there is real hope
Want another CDM and GK
If anyone comes available a World Class striker
Our full strength squad is good enough to win the league
Next season no lengthy injuries and we will become champs
We all need to stick with the team and wenger and not get on there backs after a loss
COYG