Thursday, January 5th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
Untold Injury Index – The Festive Round-up Part 1 – Gameweeks 17 & 18
By Dale Higginbottom
Happy New Year everyone, I wish you all the best for 2012. After a good Christmas break it’s time to catch up a bit on all the injury news over the festive period. We had four league games in and around the Christmas and New Year period so bear with me a little while we churn through all the data. I’ll split this round-up into two parts and then round-up the season to date now that we have hit the half-way point of the season.
The festive period is the time, more-so than any other, where all teams have to contend with the complexities of injuries, fatigue and squad rotation and it is evident by the results we have been seeing that it is not the easiest of tasks for managers. With that in mind, let’s look at the first two games of this period for each team.
| 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 17
Aston Villa Vs Arsenal (1-2)
| Injuries | Aston Villa (5 + 0S) | Arsenal (10 + 1S) |
| Goalkeeper | Given (E) | Fabianski (K,3) Mannone (S,3) |
| Defence | Lichaj (N), Herd (A) | Sagna (A,11), Gibbs (M,11), Jenkinson (B,7), Santos (A,3), Djourou (G,4) |
| Midfield | N/A | Wilshere (A,17), Miyaichi (A.8), Diaby (M,15) |
| Attack | Bent (T), Heskey (L) | N/A |
| Additional issues | Ireland returned to the squad from illness. He started and played the first half. Collins was a doubt but was in the squad and was an unused substitute. | N/A |
| Suspended | N/A | Song |
Tottenham Vs Chelsea (1-1)
| Injuries | Tottenham (4 + 0S) | Chelsea (2 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | N/A | N/A |
| Defence | Dawson (L,13) | Luiz (K,5) |
| Midfield | Huddlestone (A,13), Lennon (E,6) | Essien (K,17) |
| Attack | Defoe (E,2) | N/A |
| Additional issues | Bale returned to the squad after missing the last game, he played the whole game. Van der Vaart was replaced at half-time having picked up further hamstring problems. | Terry was a doubt but started and played the whole game. Ivanovich picked up a hamstring injury and was replaced on 38 minutes. Mikel suffered the same fate, being replaced just on half-time. |
| Suspended | N/A | N/A |
Wigan Vs Liverpool (0-0)
| Injuries | Wigan (2 + 0S) | Liverpool (3 + 1S) |
| Goalkeeper | Kirkland (B) | N/A |
| Defence | Boyce (B) | Robinson (A,9) |
| Midfield | N/A | Gerrard (A,13), Lucas (K,4) |
| Attack | N/A | N/A |
| Additional issues | Rodallega was a doubt but he was on the bench, coming on in 74 mins. | N/A |
| Suspended | N/A | Spearing |
Fulham Vs Man Utd (0-5)
| Injuries | Fulham (4 + 0S) | Man Utd (8 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | Schwarzer (B) | N/A |
| Defence | Grygera (K) | Fabio (E,4), Vidic (K,10), Ferdinand (J,2) |
| Midfield | Sidwell (M), Davies (B) | Cleverley (A,11), Anderson (K,7), Fletcher (I,5), Gibson (U,12) |
| Attack | N/A | Owen (T,11) |
| Additional issues | Zamora was a doubt but was on the bench and played the last five minutes. | Rafael returned to the squad and was an unused sub. Jones picked up an injury to the face after 20 mins, he was replaced by Young who was also forced off (on 58 mins) with an ankle injury. |
| Suspended | N/A | N/A |
Man City Vs Stoke (3-0)
| Injuries | Man City (2 + 0S) | Stoke (4 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | N/A | N/A |
| Defence | Kolarov (G,4) | Wilkinson (B) |
| Midfield | N/A | Whelan (C) |
| Attack | Dzeko (A,1) | Sidibe (K), Crouch (H) |
| Additional issues | Richards was replaced after 59 mins as a precautionary measure due to fears over his calf injury returning. | N/A |
| Suspended | N/A | Shawcross |
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Gameweek 18
Arsenal Vs Wolves (1-1)
| Injuries | Arsenal (9 + 0S) | Wolves (4 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | Fabianski (K,4) Mannone (S,4) | N/A |
| Defence | Sagna (A,12), Gibbs (M,12), Jenkinson (B,8), Santos (A,4), | Craddock (E), Foley (A) |
| Midfield | Wilshere (A,18), Miyaichi (A.9), Diaby (M,16) | Edwards (G), O’Hara (M) |
| Attack | N/A | N/A |
| Additional issues | Djourou returned to the squad and played 85 minutes. | Zubar was replaced after 50 minutes after picking up a knee injury. |
| Suspended | N/A | N/A |
Chelsea Vs Fulham (1-1)
| Injuries | Chelsea (3 + 1S) | Fulham (6 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | N/A | Schwarzer (B) |
| Defence | Ivanovich (E,1) | Grygera (K) |
| Midfield | Essien (K,18), Mikel (E,1) | Duff (C), Davies (B) |
| Attack | N/A | Johnson (G), Zamora (L) |
| Additional issues | N/A | Sidwell returned to the squad but was not used. |
| Suspended | Ramires | N/A |
Liverpool Vs Blackburn (1-1)
| Injuries | Liverpool (2 + 0S) | Blackburn (6 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | N/A | Robinson (C) |
| Defence | Robinson (A,10) | Dann (G), Nelsen (K), Givet (U), Olsson (E) |
| Midfield | Lucas (K,5) | Grella (N) |
| Attack | N/A | N/A |
| Additional issues | Gerrard was back in the squad and came on after 69 minutes. | Dunn and Hoilett both picked up niggles and were replaced late in the second half. |
| Suspended | N/A | N/A |
Fulham Vs Man Utd (0-5)
| Injuries | Man Utd (11 + 0S) | Wigan (2 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | N/A | Kirkland (B) |
| Defence | Fabio (E,5), Vidic (K,11), Ferdinand (J,3), Jones (H,1), Smalling (I,6) | Boyce (B) |
| Midfield | Cleverley (A,12), Anderson (K,8), Fletcher (I,6), Gibson (U,13), Young (A,3) | N/A |
| Attack | Owen (T,12) | N/A |
| Additional issues | Evans picked up a calf injury and was replaced at half-time. | Rodallega and Gohouri both made the bench despite the former being short of fitness and the latter recovering from flu. |
| Suspended | N/A | N/A |
West Brom Vs Man City (0-0)
| Injuries | West Brom (3 + 0S) | Man City (2 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | N/A | N/A |
| Defence | Reid (K) | Kolarov (G,5), Richards (C,2) |
| Midfield | Gera (K), Morrison (E) | N/A |
| Attack | N/A | N/A |
| Additional issues | Mulumbu was a doubt but started and played the first 80 mins. | Dzeko was a doubt but was on the bench and came on after 82 mins. |
| Suspended | N/A | N/A |
Norwich Vs Tottenham (0-2)
| Injuries | Norwich (3 + 0S) | Tottenham (5 + 0S) |
| Goalkeeper | N/A | N/A |
| Defence | Ward (K), Tierney (G) | Dawson (L,14), King (E,5) |
| Midfield | N/A | Huddlestone (A,14), Lennon (E,7) |
| Attack | Vaughan (K) | Defoe (E,3) |
| Additional issues | De Laet was a doubt but started and played 64 minutes. | Van der Vaart was a doubt but started and played the whole game. Kaboul played the whole game despite being a doubt. |
| Suspended | N/A | N/A |
So, as we have seen over the season so far, it’s a game of one-upmanship between Arsenal and Man United. Combined totals of 19 injuries for both teams surely means that there is the potential for bad performances or even results, especially with the games coming thick and fast. By contrast when we look at the combined injuries for the other teams during these two games we had Tottenham with 9, Chelsea and Liverpool with 5 and City had 4 players out. This is clearly a massive hurdle that we have to clear every game that the likes of City clearly do not need worry about.
So, despite the huge gap we actually did just as well as City, in what are arguably similarly difficult games. Many pundits have lauded City for their great squad for it’s depth and quality but actually, when you consider the performances and results that Arsenal have achieved in recent weeks, given our long list of crocked players, we’re actually not doing too bad in that department either.
United actually did very well from these two games, considering their injury levels. We’ll discover in part two that injuries of that level and intensity are sure to catch up on you at some point and have a serious impact on results.
It’s draws all round for Chelsea and Liverpool in what seems to be a game of copycat in injury levels, suspensions and results, which if fitting as it’s looking that they might be fighting each other for fifth place.
The Tiny Totts continue to do surprisingly well but with little else to play for they can focus completely on league performances, which must be nice for them. They are due a wobble and maybe it’ll co-inside with them conceding an Henry hat-trick at the Emirates in February (we can but dream).
So after these two games, performance is about par for Arsenal. Yes, the home draw against Wolves was a slight disappointment but given that there were 9 players unavailable, it’s not all that bad. Indeed, last season the threshold at which results dipped was 7 injuries so we’ve done pretty well. In part two we’ll see how the intensity of games and the knock-on impact of injuries begins to cause a wobble for some teams and maybe the start of a collapse for others.
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