Arsenal v Wigan and the question of injuries

 

By Tony Attwood

• Why the payday for Wigan from the Arsenal game, can’t come soon enough
• Arsenal v Wigan in the FA Cup – how big a threat might Wigan be?

Now here is a thought and a half.  Do clubs in the lower parts of the Premier League pick up more injuries than clubs near the top?

I have not seen research on this, but I thought it might be logical given that clubs near the top of the league probably have players who want to get out on the pitch and be part of the success story.

OK, that might seem a bit weak, but I thought I would see if it could be given any bit of proof by the current league table

Now I must add at this point, I haven’t done any detailed finer-point maths on this topic, but if we look at the clubs with six plus injuries at the moment, we find…

• Zero clubs with six plus injuries in the top four.  Total injuries 17.
• Two clubs with six plus injuries in positions five to eight.  Total injuries 22.
• One club with six plus injuries in positions nine to 12.  Total injuries 15
• One club with six plus injuries in positions in 13 to 16.  Total injuries 22.
• Two clubs with six plus injuries in positions 17 to 20.  Total injuries in this group is 18

So another great theory hits the floor.   There is a sort of small link between the number of injuries and the position in the league, but it is not major.  What does jump out, and we have noticed this in the past, is the way that Tottenham players get injured.  And that raises the question of why.   Is it because

a) Other clubs target Tottenham players, having realised that they can get away with it

b) Tottenham tend to buy players who tend to get injured easily

c) Tottenham players know that the whole way in which the club is run is rubbish, and they really don’t want to play for this team

d) It’s all pure chance.

I leave you to work out that one, but meanwhile, MSN tell us that Arsenal and Wigan each have three players out of contention due to injury.   For Wigan those out are Adeeko, Robinson and  McHugh.  For Arsenal, first it is Saliba, who is listed as being a “slight doubt” which sounds like a position on the bench,  Next we hve Odegaard, who has a limp, presumably caused by something, but might be ok.  Then it is Havertz who is definitely out with a muscle problem, and Merino who has had an operation.  And of course, Max Downman, who might be back in a couple of weeks.

So Wigan, as we know, are 22nd in their league at the moment.   This compares with last season, where they ended up 15th.   In 2024 they were 12th.  And in 2023 they were 24th in the Championship. So it has been an era of decline.

But we really should remember their one absolutely amazing moment of triumph, which came in the season 2012/13.  In that season, they came 18th in the Premier League and so were relegated.  And despite that and everything that goes with it, they won the FA Cup beating Manchester City.   But in addition, we must also add that since 2015, they have won League One three times.  Although each time within a couple of seasons, they have been relegated again.

However, let’s finish with this rather odd thought.   In 2020, as we all know, not too far into the Arteta reign, Arsenal won the FA Cup, beating Chelsea 2-1.  Since then, we have rather obviously played in the FA Cup across five seasons.    We have been knocked out in the third round three times and knocked out in the fourth round twice.   So here we are in the fourth round once again, and if we were to be knocked out it would be one of the biggest upsets in many a year.  Surely this time we will at least make it into the fifth round.  And we know that whenever Arteta does that (well, the one time he has done that) we win the cup.

And so we should be doing, since, if I might jump back a little bit, the Champions League table did end up showing Arsenal at the top of the league with eight wins out of eight, three points above Bayern Munich, six points above Liverpool, seven points above Tottenham Ho, eight points above Barcelona, Chelsea, Sporting and ManC.   That doesn’t really sound like a team that is ready to be knocked out of the Cup by Wigan, does it?