It is incredible when you think of the few players we have signed in the last couple of years that have either arrived at Arsenal injured, or succumb to injury soon after arriving at the Emirates.
I know we have a long history of signing crocks (Kim Kallstrom anyone?) but Mikel Arteta seems to be even more unlucky than usual.
His first two confirmed signings were Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari after having them on loan for a while, since January this year in fact. Incredibly neither of them have made one League appearance for Arsenal in the whole of this year!
Arteta also inherited the signing of William Saliba, but for some reason Arteta didn’t think he was ready to play and was left out of our squad, despite costing 27 million.
He certainly got lucky (so far) with Gabriel Magalhaes, who has been excellent and has contributed to our brilliant defensive record this season and a couple of goals as well. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he stays fit all season for Arteta’s sake.
Then we spent all summer chasing Thomas Partey, who looked brilliant on his debut, but had only played the equivalent of 2 and a half games (232 minutes) before getting a thigh strain early in the game against Aston Villa.
We haven’t won a game since his injury, and Arteta has admitted that he is still some way from recovery. Arteta told Arsenal.com yesterday: “I don’t know. I don’t think he will be with us in the next few games but still, we’ve been missing a lot of players. We have many different issues but I don’t like to use that excuse. At the end of the day, we are always really close to winning football matches and we have ended up losing them in the last few games and this is only in our hands with the players that we have. It’s what we have to do, we cannot change that. It is in our hands.”
The only other signings for Arteta has been Willian, who has been rubbish but Arteta has told us that the winger has also been suffering with ongoing injuries which is why he is not at his best, and of course Alex Runarsson, who has only been fit enough to play two times in the Europa League.
I don’t count Luiz as he has only been extended after being signed on Emery’s watch…
But that is some list of unl