Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 12 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 12
By Dale Higginbottom
What’s this, two injury articles in a week? Well yes, given the midweek league games I thought another brief round-up was in order. We’re now into Gameweek 12 and here’s how the injury figures stack up for the mid-week games.
Wolves Vs Arsenal
Arsenal (6 injuries)
- Goalkeeper – Almunia (6)
- Defence – Vermaelen (9), Gibbs (5)
- Midfield – Frimpong (11), Ramsey (12), Diaby (5),
- Attack – No injuries reported
Additional issues: Denilson and Nasri had knocks but made the bench and made second half appearances. Van Persie was an unused substitute, still recovering from his injury.
Tottenham Vs Sunderland
Tottenham (6 injuries)
- Goalkeeper – No injuries reported
- Defence – Dawson (9), King (6)
- Midfield – O’Hara (12), Lennon (2)
- Attack – Defoe (10), Keane (2)
Additional issues: Woodgate, not in the 25-man squad, is not included in this list despite being injured. Gallas and Van der Vaart were slight doubts before the game but played 90 minutes. Corluka was reported to have slight knock and was an unused substitute.
Man City Vs Man Utd
Man City (2 injuries)
- Goalkeeper, defence – No injuries reported
- Midfield – M. Johnson (12)
- Attack – Tchuimeni-Nimely (9)
Additional issues: Adebayor was reported as doubtful but was fit enough to make the bench and be a late substitute.
Man Utd (6 injuries)
- Goalkeeper, defence – No injuries reported
- Midfield – Valencia (8), Giggs (5), Anderson (6), Hargreaves (11)
- Attack – Rooney (6), Owen (4)
Additional issues: Berbatov, Scholes, Nani and Carrick were all reported as doubts but played most, if not all of the game. Gibson also was an unused substitute after recovering from a virus. Rafael and Evra were both forced off during the second half due to injuries.
Wigan Vs Liverpool
Liverpool (7 injuries)
- Goalkeeper – Jones (1)
- Defence – Agger (6), Aurelio (6), Johnson (3), Kyrgiakos (1)
- Midfield – Cole (2)
- Attack – Babel (3)
Additional issues: Meireles was reported as sick and was only able to play the first half.
Chelsea Vs Fulham
Chelsea (4 injuries)
- Goalkeeper – No injuries reported
- Defence – Alex (3)
- Midfield – Lampard (9), Benayoun (7)
- Attack – Anelka (1)
Additional issues: Essien returned to action and was fit enough to play the whole game (well, until his sending off).
The injury table looks to be getting tighter with Liverpool taking a shock lead. Arsenal sit up near the top in joint 2nd with United and Spurs so we’re still not out of the woods yet. The news of Vermaelen was difficult to take this week and he’ll be missed if we can’t dominate games a bit more to take the pressure off the defence a little.
The Wolves game was a great result hopefully set us off on a run. The missing players do not appear to be a concern at present but we just need a bit of consistency. A few players have been returning here and there so it’s a balancing act of fitting them in without too much disruption. It’s a nice position to be in for a change, rather than worrying that we’ll have to play some players out of position or put pressure on an untried reserve to step up.
Spurs fans are getting restless at their league form. Injuries in defensive positions are giving them a few headaches. Since Gameweek 3 they have had at least 2 defensive players out each week through injury.
They don’t have too much trouble scoring goals despite injuries to Defoe, Modric, Van der Vaart and Lennon this season. Their problems do however seem to be at the other end of the pitch. Two clean sheets in all competitions this season. Both at home, both in August, one against Young Boys at home (does that really count?), and one against Man City on day one of the league season.
Talking of City, the Manchester derby was pretty uneventful but considering the injury situations of both clubs I was expecting a much more one-sided affair in favour of the team in blue. Just two reported injuries for City compared to United’s 6 and a number of players just recovering from a virus. This says a lot about City’s ability to dominate games. They maybe missed a few attacking options but, with all that money available, they really shouldn’t be fielding such a defensive line-up.
What did I say last time out about Chelsea? Well I forget exactly but it was something about Essien. Well, they had him back for the game against Fulham and he only goes and scores the winner. He’s an extremely important player for them so it’ll be interesting to see how they cope without him for three games. Considering the injuries they already have in midfield they can’t afford any more in that area before he returns from suspension.
Earlier in the season I was seriously wondering whether Liverpool should be included in this report as they looked more likely to be fighting a relegation battle than putting up a title challenge. Things do seem to have changed a bit in recent weeks and they are back up the table challenging however, this week saw them hit 7 injuries, their highest level this season (lucky for some) and as a result couldn’t hold on to their lead. Four injuries to key defenders did not help so they’ll be hoping for quick recoveries ahead of Saturday’s trip to Stoke.
After a defeat (or two) and after confidence has been hit a team often requires a stroke of luck or an inspired performance from one player for them to regain that winning spark or mentality. We saw that on Wednesday with Fabianski and Chamakh. Two inspired performances from players who, to put it kindly, didn’t put in their best performance against Newcastle. It’s these sorts of games where need need to grind out the results and the confidence will come flooding back.
Everton away should hopefully see us build on those performances and put us back on track ready for our next home game against the Tiny Totts on Saturday 20th.
Arsenal’s past as described in Making the Arsenal