Injury problems plague Arsenal again
The injury lists seems to be growing rapidly at Arsenal this season and it’s got Arsenal fans wondering if it’s something going on behind the scenes at London Colney, or just the pile up of games over the past year. With six players confirmed injured, Arsenal fans are starting to worry about the season ahead and if we want to keep up and compete with the likes of Manchester City this season, we will have to sort our injury problems out.
Obviously, its football and injuries come as part of the package and struggle when you play at such a high level of professional football. But when they come thick and fast, like they just have, as an Arsenal fan, you’re bound to start to worry.
Arsenal face the loss of new signing Jurrien Timber for what’s been reported as up to the whole season, Thomas Partey also looks to be out for an extended period of time, although we are still hopeful he could return sooner. Gabriel Martinelli picked up an injury early against Everton that saw him have to leave the pitch and hasn’t trained with the team since. Leandro Trossard picked up an injury in training after Arsenal’s win over PSV and also hasn’t been able to train with the team since.
While both Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were forced off in our draw against Tottenham on the weekend. Rice complaining of back pain and Saka was seen coming off after 90 minutes limping. Arteta confirmed in his pre-match press conference for our Carabao cup game against Brentford this Wednesday, that Saka had picked up a knock and hasn’t been able to train with the squad since, and saying that he could even miss out on Saturday’s game against Bournemouth.
With injuries piling up, we as fans have to question what’s going on behind the scenes. Is it the fact that our players have played so much in the past year? With a lot of players playing in the World Cup, Nations League, the just passed International break, Premier League and Europe and surrounding cup competitions, are we asking too much of our players and should we really expect anything less when they are being asked to play that often?
Is it the fact that our long serving head of medical Gary O’Driscoll just recently left the club after 14 years of working for the club for Rival club Manchester United? After spending over a decade at the club and having a significant impact while at the club, that came as a big blow for Arsenal and although a few names have been floated about we are still searching for his replacement.
Is it too many games or lack of needed staff? We are not the only club who have been hit hard with a load of injuries and it looks to be a widespread issue across the Premier League. But have they they been unavoidable – or is it on the club?
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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Fitness and conditioning is just as important as building a good squad. Before someone says fitness has nothing to do with rolling an ankle etc etc yes it does.
Looks like we were focusing too much on the chequebook again
I heard Rice never missed any game at West Ham. If it was true, there must be something wrong with Arsenal’s training system and facilities, because Wenger’s team also suffered from injuries
Luckily, we’ve still got Jorginho and Elneny to replace Rice/ Partey. I bet White, Kiwior and Tomiyasu can also play CDM
Gai, I consider the injury issues not primarily Arsenal training methods. But also some club not too good pitches plus bad FA cumbersome schedules of games which many coaches have spoken of. ManCity has best football training facility in England yet they have their own injury concern. Only MCity, ManU and Arsenal has the best training facility in EPL with England national team preferring London Colney for most of their trainings.
Rice missed 1-3 matches at tops, so yes, he was almost never injured
I think Rice has never missed games through injury, but did miss a couple of weeks because of sickness back in the day at WH. So yes, an incredibly fit player, whom does five games for us and pulls up at half time.
its one thing to pick up an injury in a game, but if they
occur in training one wonders about the surface or the
intensity. I hope they get a day off once in a while ??
Rotation will help, we have a good looking bench why not use it.
Robert R,
Bench made us loose 2 paints in the last game.
Some of the bench guys are not up to it.
points*
Arteta. You pay a steep price for arrogance in this league. You had a preety full squad, you played your two best anchors a right back as a lcd( left centre defender), you were able to accomodate havertz who has been generally poor. You have lost the right back, both anchors and you are left with the havertz! Who do we blame?
We have a terrible history of injuries to players, yet our recruiting is always skimpy
Just one of the six is a contact injury. What on earth goes on that causes so called super fit athletes to break down so inexplicably?
We only played 49 matches last season against Man City’s 65!! We only played 11 games outside the EPL so I would suggest overplaying is not the issue. It’s a difficult one to analyse, it could be a physiological thing, some players are more injury prone than others. There are players who never get back to their original form after a serious cruciate injury whilst others bounce back after a few months. A bit of a lottery I’m afraid as in the case of Jurrien Timber who, fingers crossed, seems to be making good progress.
Maybe we need new fitness/injury teams.
I think we’ve change them many times in the past 2 decades without much luck. Something else is very strange and that’s across many managers
He have good squard to replace injured players but depend on who Arteta pick to replace..