There are few, if any, Premier League clubs that have had more injury problems than Arsenal to cope with in recent years and the fact that we have always had the Champions League to worry about as well as the three domestic competitions has made it even harder for Arsene Wenger to cope.
Even now when the injury situation at Arsenal is not too bad, there are six first team players out of action, as you can see on Just Arsenal´s dedicated injury page. For a change, though, our next opponents Liverpool have an even bigger problem on the injury front and their new manager Jurgen Klopp is starting to wonder what he let himself in for when deciding to come to the Premier League, as his press conference reported by The Mirror suggests.
The German and his team have come out the other end of the festive fixture congestion in all sorts of trouble and that has made Klopp see the job done by the Arsenal boss in a whole new light, after meeting the Gunners before when in charge of Borussia Dortmund but never appreciating the things Premier League managers had to cope with.
He said, “My respect for him grows day by day. It’s really intensive to work in the PL. He’s done a brilliant job.”
The Liverpool boss also spoke about what he expects from Arsenal tomorrow, a very good team playing attractive and creative football.
He said, “We shouldn’t talk too much about my experiences of playing against Arsenal. We will find a current plan for this game.
“One thing is always the same [with Arsenal], they are a good football playing team.”
I get the feeling that Klopp is not exactly looking forward to the visit of Arsene Wenger and the high flying Gunners. Is he right to worry?