Why Arsenal slipped this season, and the outstanding issues from the campaign

 

 

• The 17 Players Arsenal Want to Sign

By Tony Attwood

It is difficult to find a reliable source of injury data that uses the same methodology to compare the number of injuries suffered by each club year by year, but the best figures we can come up with for Arsenal was that in 2022/23 Arsenal had 22 injuries that made players miss at least one match, while in 2023/24 it was 21 such injuries.   However, this season just finished, that figure lept up to 27 injuries for Arsenal – the highest in the league.   I won’t bore you with the whole table but here are a few highlights – and I would add that it is important with a table like this to take it all from one source, because each source seems to use different measurements.

Apart from the fact that Arsenal were top of the league with 27 injuries the first thing that hits me is the range – for bottom of the league was West Ham with six injuries.  Which ought to be a bit worrying for West Ham because if they can only came 14th with six match missing injuries all season, what would happen to them if they had an average number of injuries?

The mid-range number of injuries was 14 for Crystal Palace which is the same number that Liverpool had.  Thus we might note quite simply that Liverpool had just on half the number of injuries as Arsenal which undoubtedly had a major impact on them winning the league.  Here are the figures for some of the clubs we regularly consider in these columns…

 

Position	Team	Total Injuries in 24/25	Lge Pos
1	Arsenal	27	2
3	Tottenham Hots	22	17
4	Aston Villa	21	6
5	Manc Utd	20	15
7	Manc City	18	3
8	Chelsea	17	4
9	Newcastle Un	17	5
11	Liverpool	14	1
20	West Ham Un	6	14

 

I would suggest that clubs that had a low league position (column 1) and a low number of injuries (column 4) have something to worry about, because next season, the chances are that they might well suffer a much higher number of injuries.  And so unless they have significantly improved their squad by then that could leave them in trouble. 

Although that is not to say that any of the lower clubs like Tottenham Hots and Manchester U from relegation is the fact that the same clubs go down one season and come up the next.   Relegation and promotion is becoming quite predictable.

So in this regard, we might say that Tottenham and Manchester  United had a bit of an excuse for their tumbling down the tables into obscurity, that being the number of injuries.   Looking at things this way, Arsenal did magnificently.

So let’s take in a few highlights – the most obvious being that as we have known for a while, the three coming up are the most likely to go down again.  Which means if you want an easy bet on next season take a look at the three promoted clubs after yesterday’s games.

 

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Leeds United	46	29	13	4	95	30	65	100
2	Burnley	46	28	16	2	69	16	53	100
3	Sheffield United	46	28	8	10	63	36	27	90
4	Sunderland	46	21	13	12	58	44	14	76

 

So yes, we can make a fair prediction of which clubs are going to be going down in one year’s time: the three that have just come up.  And in terms of which clubs will do particularly well in the Premier League: those clubs in the top group that don’t get many injuries.

Of course, there are exceptions.  Nottingham Forest might have further major injections of cash and buy the right players and so rise higher.  Although they were very lucky this past season only to have ten injuries, which is just over a third of the number Arsenal had.

The ManC question remains open – we have time and again been told the results of the 115 cases against them would be known long ago, which seems to suggest that the club is threatening further reprisals against the League in terms of more and more court cases if they are punished for past crimes.   

The silence on this subject makes me feel it is more and more likely that the clubs know exactly what they are going to do if ManC have been found guilty and are punished along the lines of Nottingham Forest (who were deducted four points).   If ManC were charged in the same way they would be deduced 4460 points which would see them thrown out of the football league completely.

It is interesting however that the media has connived with ManC by not mentioning the case at all, and presenting the end of this season as they did the end of last season, as done and dusted and with no issues outstanding.  Which simply isn’t true.

A proper punishment would see ManC relegated to the Manchester League Premier Division which is tier 11 of the pyramid from whence they might gain promotion after a year or two into the North West Counties League Divison One North.  Or South, returning to the Premier League (if their owners are still interested) around 2036.