8 men injured, but still top of the league. Can Arsenal cope with this?

 

• • Arsenal live on TV again on Tuesday
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By Tony Attwood

Now here’s a headline you don’t see every day:

“With Arsenal clear and rivals stumbling, is the Premier League title race over?”

And what makes it all the more unusual, and indeed odd, is that, as we have pointed out several times, Arsenal at the moment are not actually doing as well as in some earlier seasons.  He is that little chart updated to nine games

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal 2025	9	7	1	1	16	3	13	22
3	Arsenal 2024	9	5	3	1	17	10	7	18
3	Arsenal 2023	9	6	3	0	18	8	10	21
1	Arsenal 2021	9	8	0	1	23	10	13	24

 

Yes Arsenal today are better off than last season by four points, and one point better off than in 2023, but, we might also note, two points worse off than 2021.

And in each of those seasons, Arsenal came second.

So why is the media getting so excited about Arsenal now?   Well, one reason might be that Arsenal have played some tough games in their opening nine-match run this season, such as Manchester United and Liverpool away, plus Manchester City and Atletico Madrid at home.

Among other reasons might be the fact that Arsenal have had two wins more in the league than anyone else. have scored just one goal fewer than the top scoring teams (Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham H), and perhaps much more impressively have a defence that is quite extraordinary.

So let’s focus on that, as maybe not that many journalists are doing so at the moment – and because in the past defence was again one of Arsenal’s strong points.

If the League table was based on goals conceded it would read:

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	9	7	1	1	16	3	13	22
3	Tottenham Hotspur	9	5	2	2	17	7	10	17
4	Sunderland	9	5	2	2	11	7	4	17
5	Manchester City	9	5	1	3	17	7	10	16

 

…and that is quite a gap between Arsenal at the top and Tottenham and Sunderland in second place.  And in case you are interested, in such a league table, Liverpool would be 12th.

Now that fact – the collapse of Liverpool’s defence, was not something I saw in the pre-season predictions of the journalists.   Indeed, if we looked at the end of last season with the table set in order not of points but of goals conceded ,we would see (and here to avoid boring you stupid, I am just showing the top four and the bottom five) are rather fascinating fact about Arsenal’s back line…

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
2	Arsenal	38	20	14	4	69	34	35	74
1	Liverpool	38	25	9	4	86	41	45	84
4	Chelsea	38	20	9	9	64	43	21	69
3	Manchester City	38	21	8	9	72	44	28	71
17	Tottenham Hotspur	38	11	5	22	64	65	-1	38
16	Wolverhampton Wanderers	38	12	6	20	54	69	-15	42
18	Leicester City	38	6	7	25	33	80	-47	25
19	Ipswich Town	38	4	10	24	36	82	-46	22
20	Southampton	38	2	6	30	26	86	-60	12

 

What this table shows is that it is possible to change a club in the course of one summer’s break, as has happened with Tottenham.  They had the fifth-worst defence last season, and this season they have the second-best defence.  An extraordinary turnaround.

But unfortunately, what most clubs find is that it is difficult to change the defence and attack at the same time.   The rule generally is get one right, and then the other.   Indeed, one could even argue that the best way forward is invariably to get the defence sorted, then the attack and then the midfield.

Now of course, it can also be argued that Arsenal have been “lucky” with their young players coming through.  And that, in the face of Arsenal seemingly letting 22 players go  in the summer.

And while thinking along those lines, we might also remember that it was just a year ago tomorrow that ESPN ran the headline, “Arsenal’s next gen: Who will step up amid injury woes?”

It is only now that we see the extraordinary array of talent Arsenal have built into their squad AND the fact that Arsenal are not putting pressure on them to perform at the highest level each week.  Yes, they are being used, but not as a first choice in every game.  And with youngsters, that is important.

Arsenal’s approach can really work because many younger players will gain and lose their momentum.   We might forget that Martinelli is now 24 years old and is coming and going in the team, but that is an excellent move which is helping him recover the form that he had a couple of years ago.  Indeed, we can recall he scored 15 goals in the Premier League in 2022/23.  He could of course have been discarded when his numbers sank to eight goals in 2023/24, but now we see his numbers returning.

But to return to that opening headline about Arsenal being clear – this is the sort of thing the media do.  They set up clubs with predictions of being winners.  Then if they are right, they can claim that “of course we predicted this back in October,” and if they are wrong, there will be talk of “flattering to deceive” and Arsenal’s usual “lack of consistency”.

In short, every newspaper headline serves two purposes.  One to get you to read today, and the other as a reference point which can be quoted in the future as the media show how much foresight they have, even though they don’t.

For myself, I’d say, let’s enjoy every moment of now, but recognise that if the opposition return to last season’s approach of injuring Arsenal players as often as possible, we could be in trouble.

In fact Arsenal currently have a staggering eight men out – (only Tottenham have more  PL Injuries) Jesus, Odegaard, Havertz, Madueke, Saliba, Calafiori, Rice and yes, Martinelli.   Of course some might well come back quickly, but it does seem that “if you can’t beat him, kick him” is back on the agenda.