Why are there so many injuries at Arsenal this season?

 

 

• • Man City once again takes on the PL. We look at where this might end
  • How Arsenal’s progress has been screwed by the rest of the league.

By Tony Attwood

There is no doubt that Real Madrid is if not the most successful team on the planet then pretty close to it although at this moment they are actually six points adrift of Barcelona with one game in hand.  In the last five seasons, they have won their league three times and come runners’ up on the other two occasions.  They’ve also won the Champions League twice.

And yet they are now facing what is described by some of their biggest injury crisis at least of the modern era – possibly of all times.  According to one report, they have nine first-team players out at the moment and have suffered no less than 25 separate injuries in the season so far.

This has had an impact on the players with several reported as playing on “despite discomfort”. And as we all know, playing on when injured is never a clever thing to do at any level.   As a result, criticism has been levelled at the manager and his team for the training sessions, but it is also noted that the head of fitness was given a new title as Head of Performance just recently.  Multiple analyses follow, suggesting for example that the players are not running as far as they used to.

But there is a problem: no one quite knows whether covering a lot of ground improves the chances of victory or not, nor just how much, having players out injured affects the level of success the club has.  After all, having a brilliant set of reserve players (the obvious cover for injuries) is no good if those players don’t get games and so ask for a transfer or lose match fitness.   Rotating the squad is no good unless winning runs can be retained.

And indeed it is interesting that even after so many years of professional football (next season is the 100th anniversary of Chapman’s arrival at Arsenal, as we are currently celebrating on the Arsenal History Society site – see here for the latest episode and an index to the series and the start) there is no agreement on exactly how the issue of training and game preparation should be managed.

Does covering the ground help?  Well, perhaps not as a report in The Athletic showed that in beating Osasuna 4-0 Real Madrid players covered less ground than any other club in the league save one.  Mbappe was not called up by France for a recent game because he was not considered fit enough….

Part of the problem is that issues like this have multiple causes – the training, the opposition faced, the protection given by referees, and, of course, injuries get far less focus if the club in question has back-up players who can step up to the mark.  Except of course really good back-up players tend to want a transfer if they stay as back-up players for too long, without getting a transfer.

But just how many injuries do different clubs get and how long are players out for?

We often cite the Premier Injuries table which currently shows Arsenal with six men out: White, Tomiyasu, Calafiori, Tierney, Rice and Saka.  The only clubs with more players unable to play are Brentford (8), Everton (8), Brighton (9), Crystal Palace (9), and Manchester City (10).

And we have very few ways of explaining why these clubs have so many men out while Fulham has one player out, and Nottingham Forest and West Ham each have three.

Overall this season Arsenal are fifth in the injury table with 10 situations of a player missing one or more games.  Tottenham are top with 13 (good to see they are top of something).  Overall the aforementioned Nottingham Forest and West Ham are bottom of the totals tables too, which may give Forest something to worry about if a few injuries do come along, and may have West Ham worrying already as without injuries they are still only 14th in the league.  How far might they fall if they pick up a few more?

The way round this problem of course is not only to have a full complement of reserve players making up the 25 man squad, but also some very good under 21s who are not counted in the total squad.  The problem is that good players don’t want to hang around picking up little more than League Cup games, being in the squad just waiting for a chance because of an injury which might never happen.

So to solve that rotation is helpful – except rotation is always criticised if a winning team then draws or loses a match, and the manager is accused of tinkering with the side.

Thus when we see that last season Arsenal had 23 time loss injuries, which meant 898 days were lost and 108 games missed, that looks pretty awful.  But in terms of games missed by players through injuries last season Arsenal were 14th in the league (Man City were 19th).  The top four clubs for time-loss injuries were Manchester United, Chelsea, Brighton and Newcastle.

Is it all a matter of fate?  Or is it the way training works?  Or the attitude of referees in allowing some teams to be kicked off the park?  It is hard to find a statistic that gives us an insight.  For example, Arsenal are being fouled at almost exactly the same level this season as last season, and yet the injury rate is much higher.

Maybe on this occasion, it is all down to chance.  Any other explanations?