Injury, injury, they’ve all got an injury*

Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 15

By Dale Higginbottom

As winter well and truly hits Britain, we enter a busy period of football. The cold weather coupled with the high frequency of games could have a big impact on injuries to players and we plan to report all these injuries here on Untold.

Gameweek 15 in the league is game 3 in our run of 6 games in 18 days, so how did we feature in this week’s injury table?

Aston Villa Vs Arsenal

Arsenal (6 injuries)

• Goalkeeper – Almunia (9)
• Defence – Vermaelen (12), Eboue (1)
• Midfield – Frimpong (14), Diaby (8), Fabregas (4)
• Attack – No injuries reported

Additional issues: Ramsey is now unavailable for selection after going to Nottingham Forest on loan to get match time so I have decided that he should not be included. Clichy was a doubt with his back problems but played the full 90 minutes.

Tottenham Vs Liverpool

Tottenham (6 injuries)

• Goalkeeper – No injuries reported
• Defence – Dawson (12), King (9)
• Midfield – O’Hara (15), Huddlestone (4), Jenas (1)
• Attack – dos Santos (4)

Additional issues: Woodgate, not in the 25-man squad, is not included in this list despite being injured. Van der Varrt was a doubt before the game but started, however he could only complete 12 minutes before coming off. Kaboul also picked up a knock during the game, playing just 36 minutes.

Liverpool (4 injuries)

• Goalkeeper, attack – No issues reported
• Defence – Agger (9),
• Midfield – Cole (5), Gerrard (2), Spearing (2)

Additional issues: Ngog and Carragher both picked up late injuries late in the game and were replaced.

Man Utd Vs Blackburn

Man Utd (4 injuries)

• Goalkeeper, defence – No injuries reported
• Midfield – Valencia (11), Hargreaves (14), Scholes (1)
• Attack – Owen (7)

Additional issues: Fletcher was a doubt before the game and was therefore an unused substitute.

Stoke Vs Man City

Man City (4 injuries)

• Goalkeeper, defence – No injuries reported
• Midfield – M. Johnson (15), Y Toure (2)
• Attack – Tchuimeni-Nimely (12), Adebayor (3)

Additional issues: Barry was reported as a doubt but was fit enough to play the full 90 minutes. Boateng was also a doubt and was an unused substitute.

Newcastle Vs Chelsea

Chelsea (4 injuries)

• Goalkeeper, attack – No injuries reported
• Defence – Terry (4)
• Midfield – Lampard (12), Benayoun (10), Zhirkov (2)

Additional issues: No additional issues reported.

Again, Arsenal and Tottenham lead the way in the injury table as they have done for most of the season. The rest aren’t far behind but in this period, when games come thick and fast, the injury situation could change as much as the momentum in the title race.

Our injury levels are still manageable despite the losses midweek but it would be great to see Vermaelen and Diaby return but we’ve not had any official news of their progress for two weeks.

United had a few important players returning to full-fitness after injuries and decided to turn it on against Blackburn. Hopefully that was just a bit of a blip and we can continue our great run of away form when we go to play up there in two weeks.

The other side of Manchester are blowing hot and cold. The injuries can not be blamed for their performances and they should really be scoring more goals they currently are doing.

Chelsea’s results must be concerning for their fans. Despite only four reported injuries they couldn’t get three points at Newcastle. OK, we lost to Newcastle, but this result for Chelsea, on top of recent defeats to Birmingham, Sunderland and Liverpool is a major worry considering they keep losing back-room staff that might’ve had a big influence on motivation and strategy to help them out of this dodgy spell. They get Essien back next game and Lampard and Terry are supposedly close to a return and boy are they needed.

Liverpool were on for a good away draw until they lost Carragher in the latter stages. They don’t have a great deal of injuries but with key players like Gerrard, Agger and now Carragher out they could struggle to climb back into Champions League contention, even with City and Tottenham faltering.

I think November has again showed to be, to some extent anyway, our bogey month. Not a single league point at home and no points in the Champions League but we’re still in all competitions and still have a good chance of doing well in all competitions. Saturday’s game was a tricky one and had its heart-in-mouth moments but that was to be expected on the back of two defeats. It was the type of result that puts you back on track and after a tough November it’s the one result that could put us on a great run that could last through December and January.

One final point to end on if we think we’ve had a bad November. Chelsea got 4 league points from a possible 15 compared to our 9. Spurs got 7, as did their recent opponents Liverpool. City matched us on 9 and only Man Utd on 11 points got more than us. We’re still well in the race and we’ve got a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League, despite the defeats this month. If we also win tomorrow against Wigan I think we could actually say it’s been quite a good month for us.

*Sorry about that – and anyway it only makes sense if you remember the Carry on films, but it is cold and I am running out of headlines – Ed