Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has responded to his Manchester United counterpart, Erik Ten Hag, who said the Gunners have not had fitness problems like his team.
United and Arsenal have rekindled their rivalry this season as both clubs look resurgent under new managers.
Arsenal is having a better season, with the Gunners looking to win the Premier League, but United is also doing well and could still win three trophies.
Ten Hag claimed he has managed to field his desired starting XI for only a few games this term because of injuries and other absences and Arsenal has been more fortunate.
Arteta said via The Sun:
“We had to respond and we talked about having players out all season.
“Gabriel Jesus was out for four months, Emile Smith Rowe out for four and a half months, Kiernan Tierney, Thomas Partey, Eddie Nketiah out for two and a half months, now William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
“We overcome those situations, Rob came in and was brilliant today.
“Everyone has to give another edge to be at the same level, it’s not a secret.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
As we all know, no club is that fortunate with injuries in an entire campaign.
This is why it is common knowledge that injuries are a part of the game. Arteta’s reply shows he pays attention to happenings and the best way to answer critics is to continue earning emphatic results like the win against Crystal Palace.
WATCH – A very happy Mikel Arteta discusses Arsenal’s pivotal win over Crystal Palace
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Surely a more sober minded and rational analysis of all clubs injuries is to say that the more top quality players a club has, then the less they will be adversly affected by those injuries which ALL clubs get.
OBVIOUSLY luck is one, among other factors, why some players are more often injury prone than others.
I also have long thought that once ANY player, no matter whom, is proven to be unreliably fit for a long period, the only sensible thing is to call it quits and seek to move him on.
On one extreme , I put forward Diaby, as one with a total inability to stay fit. On the opposite extreme, Xhaka, who is virtually physically indestructible. I do think that Ten Hag is somewhat envious of how we seem to have had fewer of our most key players injured for long periods than most clubs.
But injuries are also cyclical, when comparing between clubs.
I suggest that THIS post is more fair minded and less hysterical than most who claim that THEY have been harder hit than other clubs.
I find it quite childish from ten hag to be honest. It’s one thing to bemoan injuries in your own squad, quite another to suggest another side is just getting lucky for not having so many (which isn’t even completely true, as MA pointed out).
As Jon says, there is an element of luck to it. I remember in the fergie – wenger days thinking that often the season was decided by who had the most luck with injuries to key players.
The other side is how well players are managed physically – does the manager know how much he can push each player? Do they have the right people helping them to recover? A lot of things must contribute to the numbers and durations of injuries accumulated by the different sides
This is baseless arguments. A team can have all the starting 11 and yet still not perform. Injuries do not so much dictate most performances per se. Why are coaches fired instead of players who don’t perform. Look at MU he changed the graph from bad to better with the same players, Pottet the same almost being fired with the same players but now clicking save for Ngolo Kante who’s been sidelined for long now.