Before Marten Skrtel was allowed free rein in the Arsenal penalty box to snatch an injury time leveller and deny the Gunners a famous and vital away win at Anfield, there may still have been a few Gooners who were hanging on to the hope that this could be the season when Arsenal win the Premier League title again.
Those same optimistic fans are probably hoping for a Ferrari and an ocean going yacht for christmas as well and they have more chance of getting those from Santa than they do of seeing Arsenal crowned as EPL champions in May. There are lots of theories and debates about what has gone wrong for us this season, when we were supposed to build on the promise of last year and with Alexis Sanchez hitting the ground running like Usain Bolt.
Inevitably the manager will take a massive portion of the blame, but there is a report in The Telegraph today that gives us a stark and worrying explanation of how our squad has been devastated by injury problems. The article is well worth a read and explores the difference between types of injury and how there are different ideas about the reasons for our problems.
It does not seem like the so-called over playing of players is all that significant and it seems that we suffer more impact injuries and are fouled and tackled more than other teams, perhaps because of Wenger’s style of play or perhaps because of the perception that we don’t like the rough stuff and it puts us off our game.
Anyway, it won’t surprise you to hear that Arsenal have lost a lot more player days to injury since 2004 than any of our rivals and that we have lost more injury days this season than any other club in the division, a massive 874 already. Compare that to Chelsea with just 256.
And the report shows how important this is, with only three of the last titles being won by clubs having had more than 27 injuries in a whole season. Arsenal are on 25 already so even if we have an almost injury free second half of the campaign, Arsenal are going to be well over that figure and the stats show that this makes it almost impossible to win the Premier League.
One more little pointer as to the significance of injury on a title challenge is the fact that out invincibles capmpaign of 2003-04 was also the year we had the fewest injury problems. So let’s hope that all the work being done behind the scenes to solve the problem and a change of luck like we had in the Champions League draw can help the Gunners to finish this season strongly and have a real go next time.
Poor planning coupled with poor management is the reason for our injuries and also Arsene Wengers unwavering belief in injury prone players like Diaby etc is why we have NO chance of winning the league anytime soon!
You need a study to work out we won’t win the league? HA HA HA.
Always looking at next season after next season after next season….. No way until what even the blind spectators sees is the problem with us has humbly been corrected … a dm, cb, a good bench. Period.
I mean blind spectator sees not spectators sees. I goofed!
Hw abt a manager who rotates & adapts ?
God bless Monaco. My only hope of a decent season.
Our players are too light and too small.
i would be interested in the average height and weight of the invincibles vs today’s team.
Although we would have to substitute a squad player for Mert as he is an outlier and would give a false reading.
Also we get bullied off the ball and teams know it, go youtube Arsenal Man U fights and look at the piss and vinegar running through the veins of those Arsenal sides, then look at our current crop of primadonna’s!
Sickening.
You’re so right. Ashley Cole and Toure were probably the shortest guys on the Invincibles squad. Imagine that!
Ljunberg
Height has nothing to do with it wenger a style of play is very calm and pleasant when you think of agressive arsenal players there’s jack,Flamini,theo,sanchez,koscielny,ox,arteta…..can’t think of anyone else all of those are either always injured or in the case of flamini not good enough. With all of those only koscielny is good in the air.
From this you can see we need someone who is good in the air and agressive, but sensible unlike flamini who dives in.
Ideally KRYCHOWIAK Dm and nkaulou cb would be the perfect january. (Both are quick,strong,great in the air and love to tackle, they are also statistically the best two in their positions in Europe and they are not cup tired)
height has nothing to do with this aspect (teves ,aguero,makalele, cArlos,mascharano,puyol were all world class and drove fair in the opponents.)
I remember reading that and thought it was strange in how we were the most tackled team in the pl but yet not the most fouled… you would think they both go hand in hand.
Sick to death of this injury stuff. Its a snowball effect of many factors transpiring into one bloody big mess.
Anyone else see the stat of how Fabregas this season has already gotten more assists than Wilshere has in his whole AFC career.
We have no whatever it takes attitude placed instead we have unwavering loyalty. Wenger has always been extremely loyal but im not sure if he was loyal to a fault as they say. He gave Reyes about as much time as he deserved and was quick enough getting rid of Eduardo when the lad broke his leg Wenger then giving him a season to prove himself. In the very beginning he moved fan favourite Merson on quick enough also replacing Winterburn in a timely fashion. The biggest of examples is of course our old midfield enforcer Patrick Captain Invincible Vieira who had underperformed by his own standards but would still have made most teams and would walk into this Arsenal side, yet pundits praised the decision applauding Wengers senses… having Gilberto eased a little of course.
I think the Wenger of ten+ seasons ago would have made the call seeing Fabregas return.
so why did he decide to bring back flamini? did he not run down his contract and leave on a free? it was easy for wenger to swallow his pride then because flamini was a free player, not even like he inserted a clause on first refusal which he then decided not to use, what was the point in that?
fabregas along with van persie have been the only players who have shown the quality needed to play and captain arsenal since the invincibles yet they’re now playing for rivals in our league and it looks like both of them will have premiership titles to have justified that decision, personally i think wenger made a decision based on his ego and a terrible sporting decision
@quantic dream… It was not a straight choice between two top players in Ozil and Fab… why do you think i started off with the assisting stats comparison to Wilshere? and also if you like it can be Ramsey Diaby Rosicky trio out the door. Im just saying at a club as big as the Arsenal there has to be big decisions made. Me i would like to think we could make room by offloading Wilshere Rosicky Diaby.
Or if you like whoever is best plays between Ramsey/Ozil Jack/Ramsey/Fab and move Ox wide when Poldi Campbell leave.
Furthermore you wrongly said it was a choice of Fab or Ozil. Mourinho signs two quality players for the same position. Anyhow Fabregas is a CM and Ozil is the space between CM and striker.
Oops sorry about that. You are right on Sanchez we did need him. I was mainly pointing out that in my opinion the Wenger of old would have shipped some players out to make some room.
If Wenger had signed another defender, DM and top class striker instead of Welbeck, we would be up there with City and Chelski
It’s not too late. Sign:
1. Cavani
2. Reus
3. Schar
4. Schneiderlin
…………………Szczesny
Debuchy..Schar…Koscielny…Gibbs
………………..Schneiderlin
Walcott…..Reus…Ozil… Sanchez
………………….Cavani
dude, chelsea dont loose, how do you catch a team that dont loose?
Santi looks very comfortable centrally, now is the best time to get rid of Rosicky and diaby we could get 2m for both.
Rues or draxler in>> Rosicky,podolski sold + campbell loaned. Both of these are very good players with the potential to be the worlds best in their positions. 25-30m
Dm is a priority signing were we should buy a player for the starting 11, especially with our 1st and 2nd choice contracts coming to an end soon.
Krychowiak in>> flamini and diaby out coqulin ? There isn’t a better defensive mid in euopre currently this season (squawka stats) he is also very good in the air and very quick. 18m
Cb is a must sign with merts not working well with his ever changing partner and koscielny struggling with his Achilles we need someone capable of starting straight away.
Nkoulou In> (late vermaelen replacement)
He is the undisputed top performing cb in europes top 5 leagues (squawka) 15m
That’s 5 out and 3 in and we have a stronger squad. Wenger will still be able to do those wenger signings eg
A young cam Denis praet
A young dm beilek
A young defender mings
So 1 out of Wenger’s 3 year contract is gone. He still can win the FA cup of course, but that won’t be an improvement from last season. I also don’t want to comment too much about our chances in the champion’s league. Even if we manage to get past Monaco, we can’t avoid the likes of R/M, Bayern, Barcelona and Chelsea in the semis. So he has 2 more years to go. 2 years to get the transfers necessary to challenge for the title. 2 years to get the most out of his squad. 2 years to carry out some serious self criticism. If he wastes those 2 years, I hope he will be able to sleep with that.
8 million a year – he will sleep jus fine
Expect Wenger to be at his local Lidl hour before closing time tomorrow busy looking for knocked down bargains and if he doesnt bag anything than he ll just tell the missus that “I was just bit unlucky”!
The headline is misleading as whilst it is very unlikely, we CAN win it, like a lot of other teams!
when we have a game to close out like sunday and have 7 defensive players (Coq, chambers,debuchy,per,gibbs,nacho,flamini) on the pitch who cannot defend a header….how are we going to win the title?
how good would cesc have looked in a #4 kit now? no way wenger was gonna swallow his pride and bring him back, beating monoco is going to stretch our season, making an injured team harder to achieve 4th place, i think this year could be wengers first time out of top 4, unless he spends in january, and he never finds what he seems to want in january… first time i say, i see trouble on the horizon, seems our only durable players are Per and Santi,
Arsene and the players could take a lot of pressure off their shoulders by just getting one victory against one top team. (And no, the Community Shield doesn’t count.)
As usual we need to focus on winning as many matches as possible to get 4th place and focus on the FA Cup and Champions League
Winning Champions League is not completely out of the question. Teams have won it who were not favourites like Liverpool for example
We just need luck with the draw and perform best as possible
Also Wenger needs to buy big in January
How do we win a game? Simple, score more goals than the opposition.
“Next Season” is going to be our trophy for the next 3 years
First a solicitor presents his case now a study. Being a gooner is starting to get geeky
Dortmund fans 2nd from the bottom- Supporting their team and manager like real G’s
Arsenal fans 4pts away from 4th- Asking for the manager’s head and critiquing the team every wk
Even Nelson Mandela and Gandhi were called the ‘Terrorists’ and now they’re being hailed as heroes. Wenger will go down in history as the man who made this club into a power house with the likes of RM/FCB/BAYERN, mark my words. Be patient Gooners!
Wait a decade of the same and see if they still love Klopp
Shut up B**tch. The Bvb is a middle tabled club who was turned into a beast bec of Klopp, and the fans do pay between 200 euros for a year ticked to watch the games.
The Bvb is a fans club and Arsenal is the oppesite of it.
I like this blog but I am commenting for the first time ( I used to comment some years ago but forgot my username) . I think it is time we have to change our attitude. Yes we have suffered injuries but every other club have suffered and dont perform this bad. Look at Manchester United they have suffered double the injuries but they are third. Louis Van Gaal first season but he is doing much better job than Arsene. Look at Pelligrini, he lost Aguero but he is doing very good job. Let us stop making excuses.
Many may not agree with me but the truth is that with Wenger as manager we can never win a major trophy such as the UCL or EPL. The best we can ever do is lift the FA Cup or League Cup. Season after season the man seems to make the same mistakes again and again. He is the most experienced manager in the EPL and yet acts like the most inexperienced. Every dummy who follows the EPL knows that to challenge effectively for the marathon called the EPL you need a lot of squad depth and not just depth but depth in quality.But what does Wenger do? He goes into the season with only three central defenders, which seasoned manager does that? Lets face it, we should forget winning any major trophy until Wenger runs out his contract in the next 3 yrs.
Are they even doing anything about the injurys behind the scenes?? Other than surgery and rehabilitation.. what are the doing to solve our injury problems??
To me it seems though they have just brought in a top physio to cope with the amount of injurys we have!! And not to reduce the amount of players injured. Though injurys are inevitable, something has clearly gone down hill at the arsenal training ground and treatment room.
We are meant to have one of the BEST treatment/gym facilities in Europe if I remember rightly so what on earth is happening!?!
“Study shows why Arsenal CANNOT win Premier League”
We did not (or don’t need) need a study to know that… It has been cleared and obvious for years…!!
It has also been reported that the so called “inquiry” related to the pills of injuries has concluded of a culture of incompetency and lack of proper modern training methods.
Shad Forsythe, our new physio, even told some German newspapers that (and I quote) “It would take me at least one uninterrupted full year with the squad to get it right and see possible improvements”… To that he added “Preparation methods used at Arsenal are prehistorical and out dated for the physical and demand of the current game”…
Journalists even asked him if he would not get in trouble by saying that ? To which he replied “I can work anywhere in the world. Arsenal have the facilities, but are not properly utilised. I will fix the problems if I am left alone to do so”.
Wondering why we are paying the highest ticket seats in the world (yes in the world) and why we have one of the highest paid manager on earth, but may be one of the worse and poorest tactically based on the means at his disposal and the players talent…!!