By Tony Attwood
- Positive possibilities about Martin Odegaard, although the injury count remains high
- Approaching the derby: injuries and the world of Tottenham Hotspur
The New York Times has published a handy set of lists concerning the number of injuries clubs have had this season and the number of games the injuried players have missed.
One of the first things to note is that the number of injuries doesn’t instantly connect with a club’s league position, and of course most clubs have excellent backup players ready to replace an injured man and who are anxious and willing to prove his worth.
But then again some injuries result in the use of replacement players who turn out not to be up to the job. So exact parallels can’t be drawn, and besides we can’t explain all league positions on the number of injuries. After all, Wolverhampton have had fewer injuries (six) than anyone else!
But we do have two measurements: number of players injured and numer of games missed. And looking at the tables for each measurement, we can see that Liverpool certainly seem to have benefited from just having nine injuries this season, for the total number of days missed by these players is just 17: the second lowest of all the league clubs so far this season. We might compare this with Arsenal who have had 12 injuries but 48 days missed a sa result. Although even that is not the worse, as that is Tottenham with 16 injuries and whacking great 72 days missed.
But we should note that there are only four clubs that have suffered more injuries than Arsenal. Tottenham, as mentioned, and Brighton, Chelsea and Sunderland.
Now Sunderland’s position immediately makes us ponder, since their position near the top of the league has come as something of a surprise to most of us – and now doubly so as we see that they have achieved this despite what looks like a debilitating run of injuries (11 men injured and 63 days missed).
If however, we put clubs in the order of “Premier League Games Missed” because of injury Arsenal now come fifth with 48 player-games missed, and we can compare this with Liverpool who have just 17 player-games missed.
Now Arsenal’s poor record with injuries and recoveries is something we have pondered for a while – is it the style of playing, the targeting by other clubs, the lack of protection from referees, poor recovery techniques…. In fact we can’t agree on what the cause is, although we are hoping that the new analyses we shall soon be undertaking of referee performances might at least give us a bit of an insight, although there is no guarantee. After all, it could all be down to the fact that Arsenal have been buying players who tend to get injured more easily! (Although there is no proof of that either.)
But here is another insight. The mid-ranking team in the table for games missed is Aston Villa on 30 games missed by injured players. But the range here is enormous – it goes from ten games missed up to 72 (that is Tottenham of course) and obviously that indicates that the team most affected by games missed through injuries has seven times as many games missed as the team least affected.
And yet the number of games missed by players through injuries in each club doesn’t really have much to do with that club’s position in the league. Same with the actual injuries themselves. Here is the table of clubs with the most injuries and games missed, and showing their league position. The clubs shown are those with the most injuries this season…
| Club | Injuries | Games Missed | League position |
| Arsenal | 12 | 48 | 1 |
| Crystal Paloace | 12 | 41 | 16 |
| Brighton and H | 13 | 54 | 17 |
| Chelsea | 14 | 55 | 3 |
| Manchester City | 16 | 40 | 2 |
| Tottenham Hots | 16 | 72 | 5 |
In short, four of the top five clubs at the moment are themselves in the top six places for injuries this season, which strongly suggests that clubs near the top of the league are getting the most injuries. Now that could be dismissed as a coincidence, because in the table we have two clubs from the lower reaches, but four out of the top six places in the league being clubs with the most injuries is extremely unlikely, and is suggestive of a link.
And that link is rather worrying – for although of course, some players can get injured without any action from an opposition player, this link suggests that most injuries are the result of badly timed tackles and pushes.
I am not saying this is now totally proven, but this data, which I have never seen anyone else produce, does suggest that players with top clubs are more likely to get injured than players with lower-placed clubs. And that surely is suggestive that some of these injuries are deliberately caused by the opposition, with referees not taking any action to stop the policy.
In short, an almost inevitable side effect of being near the top of the league is getting more and more injuries caused by repeated bad fouls.
If this is the case, looking at Arsenal’s current squad with three places still available for players aged over 21, these places may have been deliberately left to allow for transfers this January to cope with the injuries that the club know will be coming their way.
