The Arsenal injury situation has been the subject of much discussion in recent years and just yesterday the Gunners were left counting the cost as we badly missed the attacking ability of key players like Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky and Santi Cazorla.
Any one of those Arsenal stars might have been able to find the key to unlocking the determined Stoke City defence and beating their keeper Jack Butland. Hopefully Arsene Wenger will have at least two of those players back in action for the next game, with the Chile international star Alexis Sanchez and the German international creative genius Mesut Ozil ready to face Chelsea.
We can only hope that the two dropped points against Stoke do not end up being the difference in the title race at the end of the season. That would be a massive and unfortunate price for Arsenal to pay but Laurent Koscielny believes our injury problems have cost us a lot more than that over the last few years.
In an Evening Standard report the French centre back claims that our constant and numerous injury problems have actually stopped Arsenal being up among the very best clubs in Europe like Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
He said, ““We lose too many elements [through injury] during the season.
“It’s complicated when you cannot count on four or five guys for six months. It’s like that every year, I do not know where it comes from.
“This prevents us from moving a step closer to the top five clubs [in Europe.]”
Is he right? I would certainly say that losing the likes of Ramsey, Ozil and Giroud cost us the Premier League title a couple of years ago. And imagine how strong we might have been if Wilshere and Diaby had not been constantly plagued by injury. Will all the crocked Gunners cost us dearly again this season?
I pray a speedy recovery to all our injured gunners!
I don’t understand. Did someone actually press the red button? we got some serious haters on this forum. I hope sanchez , Wilshere, ozil, Coquelin, Cazorla and welbeck return Asap. they all cannot start but how strong the bench will be. We really need them ASAP.
Alexis Aubameyang Walcott
El-Nenny Coquelin Ozil
Monreal Koscielny Gabriel Chambers
Szczesny
Suddenly, you get excited, then you end up being underwhelmed 😛
Thing is, it’s the same guys every season. How can we talk about bringing in fresh new top talent, when were holding on to injury prone guys, waiting for them to come good? We also have a bunch of mediocre guys who can’t step up when our top talent is sidelined.
Conundrum, much…
i cannot better this comment. spot on.
gonna go bed see if the missus is still awake. arse’n’all for life 😉
To lose mesut ozil not to mention Alexis for any lengthy period of time if there is any re occurrence of their respective injuries, at this period of the season will be a crucial blow indeed!
I think injuries have cost us big time. But I don’t think our squad is amogst the top 5 teams in Europe.
Barcelona Real Madrid Bayern Atlethico City Juventus PSG etc have all got better teams than Arsenal. This is the first time we have had a worldclass keeper for example. lol The last time we had a worldclass keeper i think Adam and Eve were still alive.
Manchester united use to have Rooney Ronaldo Tevez berbatov Giggs as the attcking players. Wow that is sick. They were all their peak. Apart from Sanchez you really don’t want to be mentioning Giroud Walcott Campbell Welbeck Ox etc into that category.
Look at PSG with Zlatan Lucas cavani Dimaria. I don’t even want to talk about barcelona bayern and madrid. Suarez alone is better than the entire Arsenal football club. lol
That said injuries have limited us greatly. But top 5 clubs in Europe? come on we have not been anywhere around that level since 2004.
If Walcott and Ox continue playing the same way for next 3 months we need to get a Top forward this summer. These 2 have been given plenty of time to show what they can do like Bellerin, Coquelin and even Campbell did. However, OX and Walcott have been very disappointing this season
Campbell is fast and a hard worker and excellent backup but he isn’t much of a goal scorer. Welbeck is similar to Campbell but scores a few more goals
Without Alexis we just have Giroud as a reliable goal scorer
Sorry, I don’t normally post negative comments about players as I love our team and believe players need time to prove themselves but I expected more from Ox and Theo this season
Campbell’s goal scoring threat will come over time, don’t forget he’s only been playing in England for 3 months and is still young. He’s already proven to have more vision than Walcott and Ox combined. Just look at the number of through balls he puts in each game. He may be a back up for Alexis’s spot but he definitely deserves to be a starter on the right wing, provides more threat and stability than Walcott.
Barcelona and bayern munich also got injuries problem if both play in bpl, because here is half football half rugby.
Very true, DiMaria was one of Madrid’s best player then turned into a mediocre player in England, likewise Ozil struggled way too much in his first season with many thinking he was finished. It just goes to prove how difficult it is to be successful in England. Sanchez didn’t struggle because like Suarez he has the physical stamina to thrive in the PL, absolute BEAST.
Yes last season
poor Szczesny had
a totally shite defense
in front of him till Xmas
because of injuries.
In front of them was a pitiful, slow weak Arteta.
Add to that Giroud got injured August 22 and Ozil Oct 8.
Sanchez’s goals saved us from a complete melt down.
After Xmas we had Mertz and Kos back Bellerin and Monreal
were in top form Coquelin replaced Arteta
while Giroud and Ozil both came back in January.
Arsenal went on to be the top team all 2015.
Injuries are due to lack of rotation and player mismanagement. Let me explain. In basketball, the manager consults with his medical staff to determine how many minutes each player gets, how many games he plays (out of the 82 games/per season) practice time etc etc etc. I love AW, but no-one brings up the fact that this manager plays the same players every game until they suffer injury, he runs them into the ‘ground’ as we say in N.A… only then he brings in players from the bench but by that time, the injured player is out for 6 months, costing us the a trophy or two. Someone needs to tell him that he needs to figure out his most injury prone players and those players should get 20-30 mins per game, the others can play more frequent but he needs to develop a rotation policy in this club.
What you think will happen to our title chances if giroud goes down? with welbeck already out.
@Dennis
Not the best analogy dude. Because in a BBall match the coach is able to rotate the same players more and often…
Why did you include walcolt and not Campbell? I think he is better than theo at the moment.
It’s like a vicious circle. The more people get hurt, the fewer quality alternatives we have for the starting XI. So AW presses players to play more often than he would if he had a fully healthy team. If Wellbeck and Jack (and Rosicky & Arteta) hadn’t been sidelined all/most of the season, we’d have more rotation. Alexis would have been rested here and there– especially when AW knew he was already nursing a few niggles.
Just realised Theo has been at Arsenal for 10 years (a decade)
It would be nice to clebrate if he could score at least 10 goals lol
So far he has scored 3 PL goals and 5 total goals (same as Ozil)
Thought it would be interesting to see our main scorers stats
Player………….PL………….Total
Giroud………..12………….18
Alexis………….6……………9
Theo………….3…………….5
Ozil……………3…………….5
OX…………….0…………….1
Campbell…….2…………….3
Ramsey………4…………….5
Santi…………2…………….2
koscielny…..3…………….3
flamini……..0……………2
gibbs, gabriel 1 goal each