At last a recognition of the effect of injuries, and Arsenal’s brilliant response

 

• Is it really getting harder and harder to win the Prem ier League.
• How to make Arsenal invincible: the media finally do Arsenal a good turn

By Tony Attwood

Throughout most of this season we have had people bleating on and on about the need for Arsenal to sign a striker.   Arsenal didn’t, and worse, the club lost their main centre forward AND their top scorer to long-term injuries.  The figures below are for Premier League matches only …

 

	2023/24	2023/24	2023/24	2024/5	2024/5	2024/5
Player	Games	Subs	Goals	Games	Subs	Goals
Bukayo Saka	35	0	16	16	3	6
Kai Havertz	30	7	13	21	0	9
Leandro Trossard	18	16	12	23	9	6
Martin Odegaard	35	0	8	21	3	2
Declan Rice	37	1	7	28	2	2
Gabriel Martinelli	24	11	6	19	8	6

 

But the fact is that in the League this season Arsenal do not yet have one single player in double figures when it comes to goal-scoring.  Indeed the only player who seems to be improving on last season’s figures in terms of goals is Martinelli who has reached six goals in 19 games, as opposed to taking 24 starts last season.  Havertz was running at an almost identical goals per game ratio as last year before his injury

And yet Arsenal took Real Madrid to pieces over two legs, without a recognised striker.   And indeed without Gabriel or White being available.  And with a teenage full-back who hadn’t played in defence prior to this season and has already been sent off twice.

And while of course, it is perfectly reasonable to spend vast amounts of time celebrating that double victory over Real Mad, I wonder how many people will recall how much time and how many column inches have been spent telling us that this squad is not good enough.

There is however another point to consider: that the squad is perhaps not large enough given the way that Arsenal players can be injured in matches  Arsenal have only had 19 players start five or more Premier League matches this season.    Three have started under five games.  Do we need more?

Arsenal of course, like everyone else, can register 25 senior players (ie not including under 21s) of whom a maximum of 17 non-homegrown players.    Arsenal’s home grown players who are over 21 and thus count in the squad are

• William Saliba
  Ben White
  Bukayo Saka
  Gabriel Martinelli
  David Raya
  Raheem Sterling
  Declan Rice

Now of course players come and go and assuming that Sterling leaves at the end of the season, the first thing Arsenal will have to do is consider finding another home-grown player rather than simply filling in the perceived spaces in the squad with foreigners.  On the other hand, two players (Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri) are under age and so don’t count in the 25. 

That is helpful, as is the fact that Arsenal have only used 22 players this season, so there are places in the squad to make up the “25” without having to sell anyone, and that is certainly going to be a benefit.

Of course matters can be manipulated in various ways – not least with the use of under 21s as we have been doing, but even with the fact that the dual-nationality Declan Rice has opted to play for England it is not all clear sailing in terms of getting the players into the squad while obeying all the regulations.

One real positive however is the evolution of Mikel Merino who has been transformed into a striker having never played in that position before.  For deespite that, against Real Madrid he looked like the sort of player who, if he were playing for another club, might be considered as solving Arsenal’s centre forward needs.   The stats show him with six goals and three assists in 12 games, which are the sort of numbers that would make Arsenal look at him if he wasn’t playing for us already.

It is also interesting that when he signed with Arsenal there were all the usual criticisms of the signing – we desperately needed a back-up centre forward, it was said not yet another midfielder.  After all how many midfield players do we need?  Yet in the Premier League he is now Arsenal’s joint second-highest scorer (along with Martinelli and Saka).   It seems rather like £30 million well spent.

However at the time the Mirror, of course (it is now constantly raging against Arteta and Arsenal) did not agree and the herd-like mentality of journalists in England meant others followed.   So when a certain John Cross of the Daily  Mirror wrote about how Arsenal lacked any focus in their transfer dealings, implying (as these journalists do) that they could do a much better job, some fans were led to agree with the scribbler when Mr Cross wrote, “Just look at last summer. They signed a workmanlike midfielder in Mikel Merino – the Spanish James Ward-Prowse without the free kicks – and an injury-prone defender in Riccardo Calafiori. That is £70million-plus of deals. The recruitment was shocking.”

And maybe we should reply, “Look at the Mirror with Cross involved.  The writing is worse than 12 year olds, and the factual analysis is non-existent.  Whoever gave him a contract?”  (Incidentally we might also give some praise to Jakub Kiwior replacing Gabriel in defence).

Maybe Arsenal in the transfer windows are not so utterly useless after all.