- Club Brugge v Arsenal: all the things you don’t need to know but are quite interesting
- Club Brugge against Arsenal: how are the oppositin doing of late?
By Tony Attwood
Something very odd is happening in the media today, as journalists and publishers who normally fall over themselves to predict who will be selected for the starting XI in an Arsenal match are all very quiet.
The issue is of course, injuries, as for example expressed in the Guardian with the note that “Arteta fears Arsenal trophy hunt could be hindered by ‘dangerous circle’ of injuries.” This is accompanied by the news that “Declan Rice ruled out of Club Brugge match with illness” and “Max Dowman to miss several weeks with ankle injury.”
Now we do know that Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri, are likely to be playing. But there are reports that the manager “could be undermined by the ‘dangerous circle’ of mounting injuries and an unforgiving fixture list that he believes are placing huge demands on his squad.”
Now, as I recall it, much of Wenger’s time at Arsenal was dominated by talk of injuries and discussion about why Arsenal always seemed to get so many more than other clubs. The general argument was that it was all Wenger’s fault – he used the wrong training methods, bought the wrong players, etc etc.
If any of those arguments were true, which I doubt, then I guess bloggers and journalists can argue that this certainly still seems to be the case as the media is reporting that Arsenal have seven men out, second only to Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hots and Chelsea who each have eight men missing.
But what is not being asked and therefore not answered is the question of why Arsenal get so many injuries. Today’s report shows Mosquera will be out for weeks, Havertz has his return date pushed back again, Gabriel is out for weeks, and Calariori is not injured but has a multiplicity of yellow cards. Trossard is out with another knock, Saliba is still out but we don’t know how long, and Declan Rice is sick.
So what have we got by way of a team for tonight? Football Lineups gives us a line up of…
Raya
White Timber Hincape Calafiori
Odegaard Zubemendi Rice
Saka Merino Eze
And m.football comes up with the same.
That was obviously published before Rice was taken ill, and also suggests that Calafiori doesn’t have to miss this match because of his cards. It also does not include Martinelli who is said to have a calf issue, but may be used as a substitute. Or as others are saying, maybe is ok.
Six Sports who I don’t think we have quoted before with a line up come up with
Raya
White Calafioli Timber Lewis-Skelly
Rice Zubimendi Eze
Saka Gyökores Martinelli
They also seem to have published before the news about Rice was released.
Now, the fact is that this appears to be approaching mid-December and we have a whole range of players unavailable. Which means one could say that we are getting the injuries out of the way early, or else that the club is being targeted by dirty players and unprotected by referees.
But either way we do have four spaces in the 25 man squad, so if there is any money in the bank, we could go out and buy another couple of players in January as extra cover. And we don’t have to worry about nationality because we have enough home growners to keep Uefa happy.
And anyway, maybe they are not all injured but are simply hiding in the cupboard so that they can give the opposition a surprise as they emerge.
But the question does remain – why is it always a question of injuries with Arsenal? Last season, most certainly Arsenal did get more injuries than any other club in the Premier League, but are we heading this way again? And if so why? The blame used to be squarely put on the shoulders of Wenger and his antiquated training methods. Will the journalists put the same blame on Arteta? Or will they, just this once, admit that they don’t have a clue?
Assuming Arsenal do put a team out, and don’t just give the opposition a bye, maybe we’ll find out. Maybe it is all a hoax.
