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

Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 30

By Dale Higginbottom

It has been said that a week is a long time in politics, well, two weeks is certainly a long time in football injuries. It’s been two weeks since the last injury update and we’ve had a lot of players pick up knocks and niggles.

Just this week we’ve heard of Vermaelen’s fate for the season and that Djourou may or may not play at all in the remaining games and it seems that if we’re going to win this league, it’s going to be done the hard way.

Given that the past couple of weeks has been tough for Arsenal players, staff and fans alike, it was important that the team could get a positive result and put the focus back on league ambitions. I was not the ideal result against West Brom by any means, but given the squad injury situation, it’s not entirely the worst case scenario just yet. Here’s the reason why…

West Brom Vs Arsenal

Arsenal (9 injuries)

• Goalkeeper – Fabianski (8), Szczesny (1)
• Defence – Vermaelen (26), Djourou (2)
• Midfield – Frimpong (28), Fabregas (8), Song (3), Diaby (15)
• Attack – Walcott (6)

Additional issues: No additional issues reported.

Tottenham Vs West Ham

Tottenham (5 injuries)

• Goalkeeper, attack – No injuries reported.
• Defence – King (23), Kaboul (11), Woodgate (3)
• Midfield – Huddlestone (18), Palacios (2)

Additional issues: Bale was fit to make his first start in 2 months, playing the whole game and Gallas also played 90 minutes despite being doubtful for the game.

Sunderland Vs Liverpool

Liverpool (4 injuries)

• Goalkeeper – No injuries reported
• Defence – Kelly (2), Aurelio (9)
• Midfield – Gerrard (6)
• Attack – Shelvey (4)

Additional issues: Agger was a doubt but started and played the full game. Suarez played 89 minutes and looked to pick up an injury so was replaced.

Man Utd Vs Bolton

Man Utd (8 injuries)

• Goalkeeper – Lindegaard (1)
• Defence – Ferdinand (12), Vidic (1), O’Shea (6), Rafael (3)
• Midfield – Hargreaves (29), Anderson (12), Fletcher (1)
• Attack – No injuries reported.

Additional issues: Evans was a doubt for the game but was fit enough to start and probably would’ve played the whole game had he not been sent off. Park has been out for a while and returned to the squad as an unused substitute. Brown was replaced at half-time after picking up an injury.

Chelsea Vs Man City

Chelsea (2 injuries)

• Goalkeeper, attack – No injuries reported
• Defence – Alex (18)
• Midfield – Benayoun (24)

Additional issues: No additional issues reported.

Man City (2 injuries)

• Goalkeeper – Given (3)
• Defence, midfield – No injuries reported.
• Attack – Tevez (2)

Additional issues: No additional issues reported.

We’re definitely one of the hardest-hit on the injury front, it’s a toss up between us and United as to who is in the worst position. Both teams struggled to get the wins at the weekend due to injury-hit squads and rotation and whilst United managed to get a late winner, they did have a home advantage and might not be quite so fortunate next time. I’m not too worried by our result, considering the players soon to return we can be very hopeful of a late spurt of victories that will see us lift the trophy in May.

The big game of the weekend was the battle for third on Sunday with Chelsea hosting Man City. Now that City have just the FA Cup to play for it is essential for them, considering the money spent, that they maintain a top four place. Having been there for the past few weeks, City would’ve wanted to hold onto third spot (and therefore avoid Champions League Qualifying Rounds). This defeat however, along with other recent performances, might be enough to see them fade away and further defeats against Liverpool and Tottenham might be enough to see them fail in their Champions League quest.

Chelsea actually do have a slim, outside chance of the title with their win on Sunday. The hope for Arsenal fans is that they will continue to believe this and can take points off United at Old Trafford. Unless we both slip up (which isn’t too unrealistic to believe) it’s still a two-horse race for me.

Liverpool and Spurs continue to prop up the rest, chasing now for European football next season. There are no major injury issues for either squad but given that Liverpool only have league fixtures to contend with, I wouldn’t be surprised if the skip past the Tiny Totts for 5^th.

Back to our game and sometimes you just get those teams that are your bogey teams. This season it seems that Newcastle, Sunderland and West Brom are those teams for us this season. Maybe it’s the vertical stripes, I don’t know but I see this nothing more than a blip.

Some of the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal blogs are surely again asking for Wenger’s head, saying for the umpteenth time, that he should’ve bought a goalkeeper/centre-back/defensive midfielder. Personally, I look at the situation and see that we have our third choice goalkeeper, third and fourth choice centre-backs and, given Diaby’s injury, maybe third choice defensive midfielder in a game away from home against a team fighting for Premier League survival.

Whether or not players should’ve been bought in January is not really the issue. We still have players to play in all positions and the expectation that some of the currently injured players will return shortly. Wenger could’ve bought a player to come into defence but what would’ve happened if Vermaelen had returned? Would he have spent £20-30m on a player, like a Cahill or Jagielka not guaranteed to start when other players return or buy a 22-25 year old as competition for our first three or maybe get a younger player (oh, wait we’ve got plenty of them). So, really there was not real option to buy other than spend big money, we don’t have and hope it works out. There is a fine line to walk between too many and too few players but this time I think we might fall in the Goldilocks “just right” bracket.

There is the slight feeling of déjà vu at the moment thinking back to a similar time last year but I do feel that this year is different. Last year we had a tough away game at Birmingham that was that start of a bad run of results.

Date	Competition	Opponent	Result
Sat 27 March	EPL	Birmingham City (A)	1-1 (D)
Wed 31 March	UEFA CL	Barcelona (H)	2-2 (D)
Sat 3 April	EPL	Wolverhampton W (H)	1-0 (W)
Tue 6 April	UEFA CL	Barcelona (A)	4-1 (L)
Wed 14 April	EPL	Tottenham Hotspur (A)	2-1 (L)
Sun 18 April	EPL	Wigan Athletic (A)	3-1 (L)
Sat 24 April	EPL	Manchester City (H)	0-0 (D)
Mon 3 May	EPL	Blackburn Rovers (A)	2-1 (L)

These were the fixtures that were heavily impacted by injuries last season. I recommend that you check through the match reports on Arsenal.com just to remind yourself of who we had to make-do without during these games. At times during this run of games we had Vermaelen, Gallas, Song, Fabregas, Almunia, van Persie and Arshavin all missing or not fully fit and we struggled to get the wins, even the one win in that list was a last minute Bendtner header.

So, is history repeating? Are we about to head into a run of defeats that will end our title challenge and our season? Personally, I don’t think so and here’s why.

From this point in the year we played nine more games ’til the end of the season and because of the World Cup the season ended on 9th May. This year we have a season end date of 22nd, almost two weeks later and the same number of fixtures. There won’t be the added pressure of getting players back for a tough Champions League tie in mid-week or ensuring that players are switched-on an focussed on the game in-hand. One goal, nine games, nine weeks.

One last thing I ask of you Gooners is not to get too angry, disheartened or upset by dropped points against so-called weaker opposition. The Blackpool’s, West Brom’s and Wigan’s of this world have played considerably fewer games than us and our title rivals. Their fresher legs are going to pull out the occasional shock, particularly this far into the season and given that their fighting for league survival they are not going to give up easily. Injuries are still going to have an impact for the rest of the season but we do have the squad to cope, just keep the faith a little.