Revealed: The truth about Arsenal's injury woes

Revealed: The truth about Arsenal's injury woes
There is a league table which puts North London back on the map.

Sadly, for Arsenal and Tottenham, it's not exactly the Premier League. But, reassuringly, Manchester United are in the top three.

The Physio Room is a fascinating website and it goes into detail about every Premier League team's injury list.

Arsenal are near the top but it does offer some context about the perceived injury crisis at the Emirates.


So, is there a secret and mysterious reason as to why Arsenal seem to get so many more injuries than everyone else? No. Because this table suggests they don't.

Tottenham are top with six injuries (Rafael van der Vaart, Aaron Lennon, Ledley King, Sandro, Steven Pienaar and William Gallas). Arsenal and United both have five each. Eleven clubs (the majority of the league) have four or more players missing.

However, the difference for Arsenal perhaps lies somewhere else. When Arsenal have a defensive injury crisis, they have to call-up the likes of teenager Ignasi Miquel and Johan Djourou (just back from injury) to plug the gap.

Manchester United lost their first choice pairing of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic and they drafted in Jonny Evans and Phil Jones. One is an international, the other was probably the most sought after young talent in England.

Furthermore, what can Arsenal do if Jack Wilshere gets a kick on his foot? And it can't be Arsenal's medical staff's fault if someone kicks Thomas Vermaelen as happened in the Champions League game at Udinese.

As if to prove Vermaelen suffered from more bad luck than being vulnerable to injuries, it was on the left foot rather than the right Achilles which caused him to miss most of last season.

Then look at the others on the list. Kieran Gibbs has become a bit prone to injuries. Still a young player developing, growing and improving.

Abou Diaby is without doubt injury prone. Ever since Sunderland's Dan Smith smashed his leg in a horrific challenge five years ago. It nearly ended his career. Now, whose fault is that?

Diaby looked a brilliant talent at the time. In my opinion, he has not reached his full potential and there is one main reason. That weakness, that injury, maybe a touch of self belief, has held him back.

Then, finally, there is Sebastien Squillaci. Sorry, but most Arsenal fans will regard his absence as a positive.

Theo Walcott had a slight hamstring and was not played by England as a precaution. But if it had been make-or-break, I reckon Fabio Capello would have used Walcott as he has established himself again as a very important player for England. He is fit for Saturday.

So, put like that, is it really that bad? Arsenal have always had a good medical department. Physio Gary Lewin and Dr Ian Beasley were so good they took up jobs with England.

Gary's cousin Colin and Irish doctor Gary O'Driscoll now head the department. O'Driscoll used to work in rugby and that sport is even regarded as being more scientifically advanced than football. Yes, despite football's millions.

Arsenal use GPS equipment (as do many other Premier League clubs and the England team) to monitor players' fitness levels and when they need to wind down and step up training.

It means Arsenal players should not over train or get injured in training, certainly not from soft muscle injuries as there's not much you can do about a bad tackle or a reckless kick.

But more statistics will also tell you that Arsenal score a lot of late goals. That is because they are fit, train hard and still have energy to score when opponents are tired. That's a quality not a bad thing.

So, what is the current injury situation down to? What caused so many injuries last season? Something in the water? Something that is given to them at the training ground? No chance.

Arsene Wenger arrived as a revolutionary and has still kept close attention to diet, training and fitness levels.

But other clubs have caught up. Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas cleared out his whole medical staff the moment he arrived. He wanted to bring in his own staff. Fair enough but people raised an eyebrow. We'll see if it works.

Manchester United take nearly as many medical staff to games as players. Scientists, physios, medics, doctors, trainers. They have pushed it onto a new level.

I watched them recently in a pre-match build-up and the attention to detail and people involved was so impressive.

And yet, there they are right near the top of the table with as many injuries as Arsenal and, despite all those warm-ups, drills and stretches, Danny Welbeck suffered a hamstring injury against Arsenal and pulled up early on.

Now, however many medics, however much GPS technology and pre-match stretches did not stop that.

Football can learn lessons from other sports. But is there something fundamentally wrong with the medical set-up at Arsenal? No.

The problem at Arsenal is highlighted more than when other members of the top four suffer injuries because, generally, the squad is not as strong and the replacements tend not to be the calibre of full internationals that Manchester United can call upon.

Plus when players of the standard of Wilshere and Vermaelen get injured any team would miss them and then the fans get frustrated.

But every football fan would consider Robin van Persie as being injury prone. That begs the question about what that is down to.

Van Persie getting injured regularly can't be down to Arsenal's medical staff. More that some players just seem to suffer bad luck.

Or, more likely, that when you are that good opposing defenders often foul to stop them. Therein lies the biggest problem of all.

So the answer is to pretend you're bad?

Nope.. The point is, our squad depth is not good.. Squad players are not at the same level as our starters.. Hence, if a starter gets injured, the injury seems like a huge deal.. Thats why we blow our injuries out of proportion.. Atleast, thats what I got out of this article..

Yesyes, I was joking >>

Well I cant say i disagree with the article but we still need to improve on some coaching areas.

For example..

When a man utd player or any other top team especially barcelona players, they dive, but hey maybe by diving they save themselves from injuries.

Wenger needs to hire Chuck Norris as a diving coach.

Really?
I thought they dove so they could win penalties and stuff.

I don't usually take anything out of The Mirror seriously, but I'm finding it difficult to really disagree with what John Cross is saying. Our injuries are perceived as worse because our back-up players are simply not up to standard. Subsequently, fans blame and throw abuse at our medical staff because they need an easy scapegoat for their frustrations.

There are instances where the club is culparable of not handling injuries correctly, though. Last season, Arsene Wenger claimed Wilshere was "in the red" and that he had "no other alternative put to play him". That's a lie, because Denilson, Ramsey and Rosicky were all available for selection. Despite that, Wilshere played near enough every minute of the remaining five or six games - games that were pretty much dead rubbers. What was stopping us from subbing him after 60-70 minutes, or resting him for two or three of those games?

You could say that the back-up players just weren't good enough, but then if they're available for selection, use them. It's pointless putting players on the bench if you've no plans in actually using them in matches.

Then there's the example of Fabregas' hamstrings in his last couple of seasons with us wich were, in my opinion, a direct concequence of him playing so many games from a young age. The same thing happened with Michael Owen when he was at Liverpool.

So the it wouldn't hurt the club to devise a better rotation policy. Of course, having better back-up players would greatly aid this. We dread a van Persie injury because not only do we lose a quality player, but it means Chamakh has to play. There are many other exampls like that.

highburied wrote:Well I cant say i disagree with the article but we still need to improve on some coaching areas.

For example..

When a man utd player or any other top team especially barcelona players, they dive, but hey maybe by diving they save themselves from injuries.

Wenger needs to hire Chuck Norris as a diving coach.

i agree...with eboue not being with us anymore

GoonerJay29 wrote:Our injuries are perceived as worse because our back-up players are simply not up to standard. Subsequently, fans blame and throw abuse at our medical staff because they need an easy scapegoat for their frustrations.

I think we buy weak players and they get injured because of the strong physicality of the premier league. we should buy players like song so they stay fit all season.

the actual problem is with the cooking staff and players wives they dont feed them the healthy food they give them junk food.

Yeah ok, we have a lack of depth. But what about the last few seasons? We definitely had, yet still had a ton of injuries.

I remember against Barcelona like 2 years ago, we ended up with Arshavin, VP, Fabregas and I don't remember who else injured in like a game. Players without injury records, come here and become injury prone.

Yeah, Vermaelen gets kicked or whatever, but the thing is other guys get kicked just as hand and do not get injured. It's weird.

Great article, very interesting.

Agree completely with Jay.

Sushi Master wrote:Yeah ok, we have a lack of depth. But what about the last few seasons? We definitely had, yet still had a ton of injuries.

I remember against Barcelona like 2 years ago, we ended up with Arshavin, VP, Fabregas and I don't remember who else injured in like a game. Players without injury records, come here and become injury prone.

Yeah, Vermaelen gets kicked or whatever, but the thing is other guys get kicked just as hand and do not get injured. It's weird.

THIS.