Amidst all the doom and gloom around Arsenal following a typically tough and trying month of November (maybe if the Gooner leader of the Labour party ever gets elected we could petition him to abolish the month altogether) I think we all got a bit carried away by the talk of an injury crisis.
It was easy to be down about losing Francis Coquelin and Alexis Sanchez on top of the already crocked list of Arsenal players like Welbeck and Wilshere. But as we explained in an earlier post on this website, our numbers on this front have greatly improved this season and there are plenty of Premier League clubs that have been hit harder.
And even if they have had it better, every club has to cope with injury problems. When I was watching the extended highlights of our win over Sunderland, Alan Curbishley was the pundit and what he said made me really think. He pointed out that we had a very strong bench despite the injury list, with Walcott, Gibbs, Debuchy, Gabriel, Chambers, Ospina and just one young and inexperienced player Alex Iwobi.
But his main point was that the Gunners seemed to be able to cope with losing players to injury better than our rivals. Perhaps that is because Arsene Wenger has had to for so many years. Perhaps it is because of the style of football the Frenchman has the team playing. But if it really is the case, and Man City’s struggles without Kompany, Aguero, Silva or Toure suggest that we do, could this ability to cope be crucial to our EPL title hopes?
Cazorla’s a huge blow. Ozil’s the glue, but he was the heartbeat. Ramsey will get his shot, and offers something a lot different. It’s going to be a massive month for him, hope he’s up to it.
Dare I look to another player supposedly returning in a month or so? Nahh… It’s too early and risky. (quietly hoping second half of the season is a clean bill of health for Wilshere and he and Ozil combine for a deadly midfield partnership of Xavi and Iniesta proportions! Too hopeful?)
We’ve lost arguably our biggest goal threat.. The G-train and Theo really need to show their experience and find consistency that often eludes them. Campbell and Ox have been gifted the opportunity to prove they have the maturity to play consistently.. Both their decisions and concentration need a lot of work, though if they can improve they have the talent to be extremely threatening.
Losing our most consistent performers is huge. Santi, Coquelin and Sanchez rarely put in anything but a 7.5+/10 performance. The players stepping in can put in those type of performances but are also prone to absolute stinkers… Ah well, time will tell.
Look at the bright side, Ramsey shoots at target far more often than Cazorla. One more thing to note here is that Cazorla is much better with Coquelin, in his absence he didn’t fare as before. We need an alternative to Cazorla/Coquelin duo so we better use these games to see who can we put next to Ramsey. Is not all doom and gloom as no other team is cruising. Well , maybe Leicester but they are starting to play the big boys from now on. Keep the hope. Don’t give up now. It is far, far from over.
Well put Josh, we can only hope that the reserves are hungry to prove they are worth a long run in the first team. Campbell defnitely looks up for it. Not so sure about the Ox.
This is the highest chance we got for a while, we are not exactly in form at the moment but we are still just second to mighty lecester. COYG, the time is now.
This injury menace should be taken seriously,it is now becoming a trend and its really annoying…what if we get another injury which z mo likely than us winning the league!
I just read Carzola’s injury might be out of the season after his surgery…dammmit!! Wenger better get Isco
A trend! We get these every single year, but our squad seems to get thinnner and thinner
“Every team has injuries.”
That’s true, the number of injuries isn’t that special, but the length of them are absolutely a worry and indicate it might be something structural rather than just the ‘usual’ injuries you see at every team.