Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 2

By Dale Higginbottom

Week two of the season and maybe a few things aren’t quite going to plan on a few fronts and injuries are certainly not an exception to this. We picked up a few injuries after the Udinese game which, given the difficult run of games we have to come, really did not help matters and so going into Saturday’s game we knew it would be tough.

We’re sticking with the new format to these injury reports but as an addition from last week I’ve included suspensions to the tables. This is not something to show that Arsenal have been badly hit by suspension as the obvious argument is that Arsenal should control their players (assuming that the player suspensions were actually justified in the first place, and we all know from the ref reviews that that is not always the case). No instead, I have included the suspensions more to reflect with the opposition teams. Say for example Man Utd, whilst suffering from a vast injury list, are set to face a team who last week got three players sent off, maybe they are dealt a kind hand that week and manage a good result, which might not have happened if those three players had played. We’ll see how it turns out and if we can deduce anything from these numbers week-by-week.

Anyway to the totals and as before, I’ve again included the injury types and these are listed below.

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

Arsenal Vs Liverpool (0-2)

Injuries	Arsenal (6 + 2S)	Liverpool (2 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Djourou (E,1), Gibbs (E,1), Traore (G,1)	Johnson (T,2)
Midfield	Wilshere (A,2), Diaby (A,2), Rosicky (T,1)	Gerrard (G,2)
Attack	N/A	N/A
Additional issues	Koscielny pulled up after 15 mins and had to be replaced.	Suarez is still not at full match fitness and so started on the bench, coming on after 71 mins. Skrtel returned from an injury and was an unused substitute.
Suspended	Song, Gervinho	N/A

Chelsea Vs West Brom (2-1)

Injuries	Chelsea (4 + 1S)	West Brom (1 + 1S)
Goalkeeper	Cech (K,1)	N/A
Defence	Bertrand (T,2), Luiz (K,2)	N/A
Midfield	Essien (K,2)	Thomas (D)
Attack	N/A	N/A
Additional issues	N/A	McAuley & Odemwingie returned to the squad, the latter coming on as a second half substitute.
Suspended	Sturridge	Gera

Bolton Vs Man City (2-3)

	Bolton (6)	Man City (1 + 1S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Ricketts (L), Mears (Z)	N/A
Midfield	Davis (K), Gardner (G), Holden (K), Lee (Z)	De Jong (J,1)
Attack	N/A	N/A
Additional issues	N/A	N/A
Suspended	N/A	K. Toure

Later today (Monday) the following is expected

Man Utd Vs Tottenham

Injuries	Man Utd (6 + 0S)	Tottenham (9 + 0S)
Goalkeeper	N/A	N/A
Defence	Rafael (S,2), Vidic (C,1), Ferdinand (E,1)	Gallas (C,1), King (K,1), Hutton (U,1)
Midfield	Valencia (A,2), Fletcher (I,2)	Pienaar (G,1), Sandro (K,1), Jenas (L,1), Modric (“head not in the right place”,1), Palacios (K,1), Huddlestone (A,1)
Attack	Hernandez (H,2)	N/A
Additional issues	Evra is expected to return from his Knee injury.	Crouch is a doubt but some reports have him a fit to play.
Suspended	N/A	N/A

I obviously cannot be certain of this (as I write this ahead of the game) but if the reports are correct, Tottenham are back where they were for most of last season, top of the injury tree. We’re up there with United in second with 6, which is quite high so early in the season.

It was a bad time to face Liverpool, not least with the fixture congestion and our injuries but also with Liverpool missing just two players they had options on the bench to change the game, which we simply didn’t have. The additional injury to Koscielny is serious blow and Frimpong’s sending off was another kick in the teeth but up until that point we were playing well considering which players were actually available. It’s not the worst injury situation we’ve been in but with the injuries and timing combined it’s surely one of the worst situations we’ve been in for a while.

Chelsea and City both made it difficult for themselves in their respective games. Chelsea needed a late goal to claim all three points, as did Utd when playing West Brom, so maybe they are a stubborn team to face, although in both cases Utd and Chelsea have had some key injuries.

City have again been dealt a good hand with injuries and, against a Bolton side missing a good few players, maybe should’ve been a little more dominant. I still think City will struggle with injuries this season. The increased demands of Champions League football will certainly be an issue and I would expect a few dropped points as a result. One interesting thing to note with the line-up on Sunday, Clichy was on the bench, IO don’t think he was reported injured so maybe he’s not first choice, I wonder what Samir thinks of this?

I’m not really sure what to make of the injuries for the Utd Vs Spurs game tonight. There are a lot of conflicting reports about who is “fit” to play and who is injured. Like I said last week, it’s particularly difficult when player transfers are in the negotiation stages as teams might want to avoid injuries to players they want to sell and therefore may cover their absence with a fabricated injury. One website states Modric has a groin injury, whilst Harry Redknapp has stated Modric’s “head’s not in the right place” for him to play against Man Utd. Make what you will of this but we all know that he won’t feature in the game and I’m sure we’ll get a better idea of the situation come September 1st.

So, United next in the league and given the injuries to both squads, it might be a good time to face them. Their Goalkeeper still needs to settle in and with a make-shift back four, this could be made all the more difficult. The issue for us is our midfield but maybe if Koscielny and Djourou return, we could push one of them into defensive midfield. Rosicky’s return could be vital for that game as otherwise we might be forced to play a fairly inexperienced player in what is a very important game.

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