Arsenal have plenty of injury problems of our own to worry about at the moment and they are important players that Arsene Wenger is having to cope without as well. The likes of Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky may not always be guaranteed starters but they do have a significant impact for Arsenal, while Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin would walk straight back into the first team if they were match fit.
But none of those Gunners seem to have the same importance to our team that the Man City captain and defender Vincent Kompany has to our Premier League rivals. With the Belgian in the team Man City, before tonight’s games, have played eight EPL games and conceded just a single goal but without him they had let in 21 in 11 games, a massive difference.
No wonder their Spanish international star David Silva is worried about their defending, as reported by ESPN. The attacking midfielder has called on his team mates to step up and defend better without Kompany but you get the impression his is not too confident of it happening.
Silva said, “Vinnie is a key player for us and our captain. With or without him in the side we have to work hard to concede less.
“But it’s not just the defence that defends, but the whole team. It’s the same when we’re attacking — you need to have everyone helping out going forward so it’s down to us all to perform our defensive duties and it’s something we’ll be trying to do to help the cause.
“Any team will miss their captain when they’re out and we’re no exception.”
That makes the news reported by The Guardian on Kompany’s return from injury potentially key to which club will be Premier League champions at the end of the season, because Manuel Pellegrini fears that the Belgian will be out for some time.
The City boss said, “Its difficult to know. We are still trying to find out the reasons for so many injuries. Myself I’m not so sure, maybe the last part of the season.”
That would certainly make life easier for Arsenal and might well allow us to stop the penultimate game of the season, away to Man City, being a title decider. What do you think?