- Brighton v Arsenal the tackles, the fouls, the cards
- Brighton and Hove v Arsenal, the home and away prognostications
By Tony Attwood
This is something I don’t ever recall having seen before (although I am sure my memory is once more playing tricks). Arsenal are actually at the bottom of the injury league according to Premier Injuries.
Arsenal are shown as having Timber and Saka out, with Saka noted as having a late fitness test. As for Timber the note posted at the start of this month says “He’s doing very well; he’s back training. He’s not far off, but the thing is that last step. He hasn’t played any minutes, so does he need a game with the U21s. I think he has a good chance [of playing again this season]’.”
Brighton and Hove have six players noted with injuries:
- Solomon March is noted as possibly being back before the end of the season.
- Jack Hinshelwood is out for the season having got a kick in a training session
- Kaoru Mitoma is likewise out for the season
- Billy Gilmour also is in that situation
- Adam Webster is also out for the campaign
- James Milner is out for an indefinite period.
It really does show just how different seasons can go for players, but it raises again the issue of why some clubs get more injuries than others. Primarily four points seem to be raised when this is discussed
a) The player is prone to injury.
b) The training methods at the club are wrong.
c) Players from other clubs target him because they know he goes down easily.
d) He’s been overplayed or came back from injury last time too quickly.
Whether coaches in the Premier League are so stupid as to overplay players and not heed medical advice I don’t know. Maybe it is all just luck, but the distance between teams in terms of injuries is rather large…
Here’s a selection of the clubs showing the number of men down…
Fulham: 0 Arsenal: 2 Manchester City: 2 Brighton and Hove Albion: 6 Tottenham Hotspur: 6 Liverpool: 7 Aston Villa: 8 Chelsea: 8 Manchester United: 9 Luton Town: 11 Newcastle United: 12
Certainly, it does seem that as injuries mount up so they mount up even more, suggesting perhaps that players who are not 100% match fit are sometimes pushed into the squad to cover for the injrured by making up the numbers, while others then are returned to the squad too soon because their replacements are just not up to it.
And that all comes back to the issue of having players who are not going to be happy with not playing each and every game. Balancing a squad is difficult, and it was indeed interesting to see how Arteta was managing this with the squad that he picked for the last game.
I am also finding it interesting to continue comparing where Arsenal and the opposition are now with where they were a year ago…
Here are both teams on 30 games at the moment and during season 2022/3..
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal 2024 | 30 | 21 | 5 | 4 | 72 | 24 | 48 | 68 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2023 | 30 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 72 | 29 | 43 | 73 |
| 9 | Brighton 2024 | 30 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 51 | 46 | 5 | 43 |
| 8 | Brighton 2023 | 30 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 55 | 40 | 15 | 49 |
Arsenal are five points behind their position after 30 games last season, but the goals scored are the same and the goals against, five better.
Brighton are six points worse off than they were are year ago, have scored four goals fewer and conceded six more, leaving their goal difference ten worse off.
But this calendar year they have been having a struggle. They have played 11 games starting with a goalless draw against West Ham United on 2 January, and only three of these have been wins. 4-1 against Crystal Palace, 0-5 away against Sheffield United, and 1-0 against Nottingham Forest. They have also drawn with Everton, Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
So in effect, they are not seriously used to winning against serious Premier League opposition, and my thoughts remain very positive for this game.
