Team Focus: Trying to Make Sense of Arsenal's Latest Injury Crisis
In truth, there is no sense to be made of Arsenal's latest injury problems. Reinforced after a summer of spending, they are already, just seven games into the new Premier League season, facing a fresh crisis. That this is far from the first time we have seen this happen to the Gunners in recent years highlights a pattern, yet with a pattern there is usually an explanation. There is seemingly no explaining their current woes.
With the news that Laurent Koscielny has left the France squad due to a flare up of his persistent Achilles problem is a further blow to Arsène Wenger, who will be left praying that the rest of his players come back from international duty unscathed. He had also lost Mesut Özil for up to three months to a knee injury the day previous, adding to a list that already included Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Debuchy, Olivier Giroud, Serge Gnabry, Yaya Sanogo and Theo Walcott.
And so, Arsenal are down to the bare bones, particularly in defence - with Calum Chambers suspended for their next domestic game as well - and central midfield. Those are two areas which, prior to the season were widely regarded as in need of strengthening, or at least some form of back up, and yet once again Wenger decided he had adequate cover and opted against bringing anyone else in, presumably concluding that there wasn't good enough value to be found in the market.
However, in his team selection so far this season, Wenger has shown that he has a certain preferred XI and would much sooner stick with his favoured players than rotate and rest those needing a break.
After Chambers' somewhat shaky performance at centre-back at Goodison Park earlier in the season, there has been even more pressure on Koscielny to remain fit and ready to play each and every game. Arsenal are unquestionably a better team with the France international playing: they have won 63.2% of their Premier League games with Koscielny starting since the start of last season, conceding 1.05 goals per game, but have have a win rate of 28.6% without him, conceding 1.43 goals per game. Wenger's persistence in starting Koscielny throughout his injury has come back to haunt him with the latest news.
Further forward, Özil's absence will turn the fans' stomachs. Some have cited a poor start to the season - in particular out wide - for Özil as reason enough to call his injury a blessing in disguise for the Gunners, but he has shown signs of form when deployed centrally. His importance to Wenger is obvious; the German moves the ball in attacking positions quickly and efficiently, searching for an opening and in doing so he creates space. He has, even in this supposed trough in form, averaged more successful passes per game in the final third of the pitch (31.2) than any other player in Europe's top 5 leagues this season.
Wenger barely gives Özil any time off, any breaks or any rest, so crucial is he to his manager's game plan. In fact, the midfielder has completed the full 90 minutes in 26 of his 41 starts (63.4%) in the Premier League and Champions League since moving to the Emirates. That may not seem like a huge proportion, but given that this is his fourth injury layoff in just over a year at Arsenal, while he did not get injured in over 3 seasons at Real Madrid, his health has obviously been mismanaged in London.
At the Bernabeu, the coaching staff were well aware that Özil was not able to be relied upon to play all of every game. He played the full 90 minutes in just 38 of the 112 La Liga and Champions League matches he started (33.9%) for Real Madrid, having been in the starting lineup for a similar proportion of games in Spain (73.7%) as he has in England (78.8%). Thus, he has averaged 83.2 minutes on the pitch per appearance under Wenger. For Madrid that number was down at 71.0 minutes. 71 minutes per game in Spain and no injuries suffered, compared to 83.2 minutes played and months on end spent injured in England. Grim reading, indeed, for Wengerites.
There is an element of bad luck in Arsenal's persistent injury problems. There is also something to be said for the fact that these immensely talented players have their flaws in being more injury prone than most. Some people have cited the training pitch at London Colney as playing a part in Arsenal's continued injury problems. That could well have made a difference, but sufficiently to mean 16 players have picked up injuries already this season? Presumably not.
The Gunners brought in a new fitness coach in Shad Forsythe this summer to deal with problems that have been apparent for a number of years, but clearly there has been no reward for trying to address the glaring issues. More Arsenal players have had injury problems this season than any other team in the Premier League.
However, overriding all of these contributory factors remains the presence and mismanagement of Arsène Wenger. Those that have called for his head in recent years are misguided; he deserves to be trusted given his past successes at the club. Nonetheless, his inability to rotate his best players effectively to keep them fresh and available for the majority of the season is continuing to hurt Arsenal, and something drastic needs to be done about it. When the likes of Özil, Ramsey and Walcott return to action, they need to be treated with care and their playing time simply has to be curbed.
What do you blame for Arsenal's latest injury crisis? Let us know in the comments below
