Untold Injury Index – The Festive Round-up Part 2 – Gameweeks 19 & 20

Untold Injury Index – The Festive Round-up Part 2 – Gameweeks 19 & 20

By Dale Higginbottom

So, here we are with part two of our festive round-up of injuries, you can find part one here. I don’t usually combine these reports but over the festive period it’s difficult to keep up with all the games and injuries but now that I’ve caught up it almost make sense to do it this way for this block of games.

The Christmas/New Year period is so jam-packed with games that having a deep squad (or even just one not ravaged by injuries) is extremely important to ensure performances are not severely impacted. Unfortunately for Arsenal our injury crisis hit at just the wrong time but, all things considered, I think we can be relatively happy with our results. We’ll look at results later but before I get into that let’s look at the data.

A = Ankle	K = Knee
B = Back	L = Achilles
C = Calf	M = Muscle
D = Dead Leg	N = Hip
E = Hamstring	R = Rib
F = Fatigue/Lack of Fitness	S = Shoulder
G = Groin	T = Thigh
H = Head Injury/Concussion	U = Unknown
I = Illness	Y = Hand
J = Foot	Z = Broken Leg

Gameweek 19

Arsenal Vs QPR (1-0)

Injuries	Arsenal (9 + 0S)	QPR (4 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	Fabianski (K,5) Mannone (S,5)	N/A
Defence	Sagna (A,13), Gibbs (M,13), Jenkinson (B,9), Santos (A,5),	Ferdinand (E), Hall (G)
Midfield	Wilshere (A,19), Miyaichi (A.10), Diaby (M,17)	Dyer (J)
Attack	N/A	Hulse (K)
Additional issues	Walcott returned to the squad after recovering from illness. Vermaelen picked up an injury and was replaced after 54 mins.	N/A
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Chelsea Vs Aston Villa (1-3)

Injuries	Chelsea (3 + 0S)	Aston Villa (4 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	Given (E)
Defence	Ivanovich (E,2)	Lichaj (N), Herd (A)
Midfield	Essien (K,19), Mikel (E,2)	N/A
Attack	N/A	Heskey (L)
Additional issues	Bosingwa was a doubt but mad the squad and came on as a 75th minute sub. Sturridge picked up an injury and was replaced on 62 mins.	Bent was a doubt but was in the squad and came off the bench after 78 minutes.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Liverpool Vs Newcastle (3-1)

 

Injuries	Liverpool (2 + 1S)	Newcastle (4 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Robinson (A,11)	S Taylor (L)
Midfield	Lucas (K,6)	Guthrie (G), Marveaux (G)
Attack	N/A	Lovenkrands (C)
Additional issues	N/A	Obertan was a doubt but started and played 84 minutes. Ba was a doubt but played the whole game and Santon played the second half despite being a doubt for the game.
Suspended	Suarez	N/A

Man Utd Vs Blackburn (2-3)

 

Injuries	Man Utd (10 + 0S)	Blackburn (8 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	Robinson (C)
Defence	Fabio (E,6), Vidic (K,12), Ferdinand (J,4), Smalling (I,7), Evans (I,2)	Dann (G), Nelsen (K), Givet (U), Olsson (E)
Midfield	Cleverley (A,13), Fletcher (I,7), Gibson (U,14), Young (A,4)	Grella (N), Dunn (E)
Attack	Owen (T,13)	Hoilett (E)
Additional issues	Jones returned to the squad and played the whole game. Anderson was back in the squad and played the second half.	N/A
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Sunderland Vs Man City (1-0)

Injuries	Sunderland (9 + 0S)	Man City (1 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	Gordon (K), Westwood (I)	N/A
Defence	Bardsley (T), Bramble (C), Angeleri (K), Turner (K)	N/A
Midfield	Richardson (I)	N/A
Attack	Wickham (K), Campbell (K)	Balotelli (A,1)
Additional issues	Brown picked up an injury and was replaced after 26 mins.	Kolarov and Richards both returned to the squad. The former started and the latter replaced him on 67 mins.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Swansea Vs Tottenham (1-1)

Injuries	Swansea (2 + 0S)	Tottenham (5 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Tate (Z)	King (E,6), Bassong (B,1)
Midfield	Bodde (K)	Huddlestone (A,15), Lennon (E,8)
Attack	N/A	Pavlyuchenko (A,4)
Additional issues	Rangel and Taylor were both in the squad despite being doubts for the game. Morre was replaced after 68 minutes after picking up an injury.	Defoe and Dawson both returned to the squad on the bench. The former came on after 70 mins, the latter was unused. Parker was replaced after 71 minutes after sustaining an injury.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

 

Gameweek 20

Fulham Vs Arsenal (2-1)

Injuries	Fulham (4 + 0S)	Arsenal (9 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	Schwarzer (B)	Fabianski (K,6)
Defence	Grygera (K)	Sagna (A,14), Gibbs (M,14), Jenkinson (B,10), Santos (A,6), Vermaelen (C,8)
Midfield	Davies (B)	Wilshere (A,20), Miyaichi (A.11), Diaby (M,18)
Attack	Johnson (G)	N/A
Additional issues	N/A	N/A
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Wolves Vs Chelsea (1-2)

Injuries	Wolves (3 + 1S)	Chelsea (6 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Craddock (E),  Zubar (K)	Ivanovich (E,3)
Midfield	O’Hara (M)	Essien (K,20), Mikel (E,3), Malouda (I,1)
Attack	N/A	Sturridge (U,2) Kalou (M,1)
Additional issues	N/A	N/A
Suspended	Milijas	N/A

Newcastle Vs Man Utd (3-0)

 

Injuries	Newcastle (4 + 0S)	Man Utd (8 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	S Taylor (L)	Fabio (E,7), Vidic (K,13), Smalling (I,8), Evans (I,3)
Midfield	Guthrie (G), Marveaux (G)	Cleverley (A,14), Fletcher (I,8), Young (A,5)
Attack	Lovenkrands (C)	Owen (T,14)
Additional issues	Obertan was a doubt but started on the bench and came on in the final minute.	N/A
Suspended	N/A	N/A

Man City Vs Liverpool (3-0)

Injuries	Man City (1 + 0S)	Liverpool (2 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	N/A	Robinson (A,12)
Midfield	N/A	Lucas (K,7)
Attack	Balotelli (A,2)	N/A
Additional issues	N/A	N/A
Suspended	N/A	Suarez

Tottenham Vs West Brom (1-0)

Injuries	Tottenham (4 + 0S)	West Brom (6 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	King (E,7)	Olson (C), Reid (K)
Midfield	Huddlestone (A,16), Lennon (E,9), Parker (K,1)	Brunt (U), Gera (K), Mulumbu (G)
Attack	N/A	Long (B)
Additional issues	Pavlyuchenko and Bassong returned to the squad. Sandro was replaced after 30 mins with a torn calf muscle. His replacement, Livermore also had to be replaced, on 77 minutes. Gallas was replaced by Bassong on 67 mins.	Homas was forced off after 27 minutes.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

So, there’s no real need for me to tell you that Arsenal are worst hit by injuries again with United up there with us. The rest are again skirting around the idea of picking up some injuries but don’t really want to fully commit. Maybe their time is coming, to coincide with the loss of players to the ACN or Liverpool’s loss of Suarez.

Arsenal had three points from the two games, a difficult win against QPR followed by a poor performance at Fulham. Craven Cottage has often been a difficult ground for us and with more the double the injury level of our hosts, we came unstuck in our fourth game in 12 days, hardly a disaster.

Similarly, this was also the week in which all United’s injuries hit them hard. Two defeats in a row are really not going to do their title hopes. It was obviously going to be on the cards, there are only so many games you can win with Carrick playing centre back. Rooney’s fine and club-imposed suspension from the Blackburn game certainly didn’t help selection problems.

Chelsea had quite a tough injury week (for them), missing six players in their second game is panic stations for them. Oddly, the game they have the worst injuries is the only game they won during the festive period.

Liverpool had another fairly mixed week. Up one minute with a win against Newcastle and back down to earth with a thumping by City. Liverpool are fighting it out with City for that coveted bottom spot of the injury league.

Onto City and they ended the festive period on a high with that victory over Liverpool but that was preceded by a last minute defeat to Sunderland. Given the squad they have available, and their lack of any significant injuries you don’t really expect City to drop points so it’s always a bonus when they do.

Finally the Tiny Totts are beginning to get it into their head that they could be in contention for the title. Their current form certainly is good but they are due a wobble and it’s how they recover from that that will indicate how likely it is. They play City in just over a week, could be interesting.

Now, as we’ve combined the games this festive period, let’s look at the mini table for these games

 

Team	Injuries GW17-GW20	Points GW17-GW20
Arsenal	38	7
Man Utd	37	6
Tottenham	17	8
Chelsea	14	5
Liverpool	9	5
Man City	6	7

Well, well, well, you’ll never guess who’s top. Of course we’re had quite a difficult run of it when it comes to injuries but so have United. It seems our full-back crisis has hit just as their centre-back crisis hit. I’m not sure we can truly evaluate the games to be comparable but the fact that we picked up the same points as City with more than six times the injuries. If anything it shows our squad strength and, given City’s recent cup results without 2 or 3 key players, it makes me wonder how they really would’ve dealt with our injury levels.

So, where are we now? With the league about to start back up after the break for the FA Cup we’re in good spirits and the return of Thierry Henry certainly has been a big boost after a disappointing defeat at Fulham. The full-back situation isn’t going to improve, we’ll have to just accept it. The injury to Coquelin really hasn’t helped matters but hopefully we’ll have some positive news on returning players before the Swansea game, or at least before the United game next week.

Next time out I’ll bring you Gameweek 21 and dip into the half-season data and see how we compare to the other five after 19 games.

——————————————-

Arsenal’s 125 year celebrations

At the 125 year celebrations at the House of Commons, the existence of a previously unknown archive of historic Arsenal material was announced

————————————————————

Referees and Corruption

Suspicious ref decisions: when errors don’t balance out and become bias.  Part 2 of our new enquiry

Fifa says Premier League is not exempt from corruption, and appoints ex-Interpol man to investigate

Many refs make one wrong call every 10 minutes. Part 1 of our new enquiry.

Latest Ref Reviews:    Sunderland 1 Man City 0        Fulham 0 Man U 5