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By Tony Attwood
You don’t need me to tell you that this has been a period of enormous injury problems for Arsenal. Even today, with several players now said to be fit again after lay-offs, we have five men listed as being out: Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Magalhaes, Kai Havertz, Viktor Gyokeres, and Martin Odegaard. Of course, we might see one, or maybe two of them back tonight, although if so, it possibly could be on the bench.
So the injury numbers are going down a bit, but this huge raft of injuries does show that the “kick an Arsenal player” style of defending is still popular among some defenders in the Premier League, and that the extraordinary level of activity of Mikel Arteta and co during the summer window was worthwhile in protecting the club against that approach. So far this season, we haven’t run out of players.
As Premier Injuries reported, we had 36 time-loss injuries last season, 1,297 player days lost, and 163 games missed because of injuries. We might compare these figures with Liverpool, which had 22 time-loss injuries, 764 days lost, and 88 games missed.
That is to say, Liverpool had just 61% of Arsenal’s time loss injuries, 59% of Arsenal’s days lost, and 54% of Arsenal’s games missed. The benefit to them last season was incredible. I suspect refs are not so readily letting them get away with such matters this season.
And yet despite that phenomenal benefit that most other clubs had of fewer injuries than Arsenal, Arsenal still came second in the league. Yes, 10 points behind Liverpool – but given those injury problems, that is a stunning and remarkable result. Take injuries into account, and Liverpool were, in fact, playing with a squad that was something like one and a half times the size of Arsenal’s.
The difference at the moment is that there are now five Arsenal players down as opposed to four down for Liverpool, and it is suggested that one of Arsenal’s injured men will, in fact, return tonight. Liverpool, in short, has lost their incredible advantage from last season, and their league position shows it.
So, how have Arsenal gained a benefit this season? First, I think the players have been made more aware of the fact that the approach of many other teams is based on the notion that Arsenal players are soft, and that a few solid tackles and kicks will a) put them off their game and b) not be penalised by the referees who seem to have the notion that Arsenal make far too much fuss about being kicked.
As for Arsenal, the number of dribbles by Arsenal players do, has gone down by 12% as opposed to last season, which has reduced the level of danger to these players.
The links between the number of dribbles and the number of fouls is not exact, but it does exist. Chelsea, for example, are fourth in the table of the number of dribbles attempted and second in the number of times they are fouled.
Of course, one of the factors to take into account is just how good a team is at dribbling; a club that attempts a lot of dribbles but can’t pull them off doesn’t need to be tackled. The defenders just run along beside them and wait for them to make a mistake.
But Arsenal are not just changing their style of defence, for they are upping the number of shots on target. In fact, Arsenal now have around 50% more shots on target per game than Tottenham.
So does this mean that Arsenal now really do have enough players to cover for injuries? I think that probably is the case, and that is not only good because we have players who are used to playing in different positions, it is also good because Arsenal are still continuing to evolve their playing style. We now have five men missing, the same as five other clubs. Tottenham, with eight men down and Forest, with six men out, are the leaders.
It is also worth noting how clubs are bursting through and then fading away this season. Liverpool, we know, have sunk down to 12th, while Sunderland who were challenging at the top, have had two wins in the last six games. It seems only a few days ago, everyone was talking them up as the new wonderteam. Ah well…
Next up, the team.
