Another season and another Arsenal injury
Every year it’s the same thing, Arsenal suffer injuries to key players.
The latest is Samir Nasri, who has undergone minor surgery on his knee after picking up the injury in the Gunners’ 1-1 draw with Liverpool last Sunday.
This is not the first injury Arsenal have suffered, nor will it be the last, and as for Nasri, who is set to sit on the sidelines for the next month, you feel sorry for him as he missed the beginning of last season with a fractured leg sustained in pre-season training.
Already Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger faced a dilemma at the beginning of this year’s campaign as he had to name a team without the likes of club captain Cesc Fabrégas, Robin van Persie, Johan Djourou, Denilson, Alex Song, Aaron Ramsey, and Nicklas Bendtner.
Fabrégas was absent from the game against Liverpool, but the likes of Van Persie and Song were risks, and they were on the bench, with Van Persie coming on towards the end of the game. Nonetheless, the key players were either injured or not able to start.
Over the last five years, injuries have played a major role in Arsenal’s inability to achieve the level of success their squad list has suggested is within their reach, and if you were to think of what would happen if key players didn’t pick up long-term injuries, then things might have been different.
Take last season for example. Arsenal finished third in the Premier League and reached the Champions League quarter-finals without Van Persie, who was out for five months. When Van Persie made his return against Tottenham in April, he showed what Arsenal had been missing, forcing Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to pull off a string of top-class saves.
Fabrégas missed chunks of the season as well, and for Theo Walcott, his season barely got started as injury followed after injury for the England winger. William Gallas’ season ended early through injury, and as did Ramsey’s in cruel circumstances, the midfielder breaking his leg in the 3-1 league win at Stoke. Andrey Arshavin also missed the concluding and crucial parts of the season.
You can argue that every team gets injuries to their players, but it does seem to be the case that when Arsenal get a player injured, they are sidelined for a matter of months rather than weeks and days.
A couple of seasons ago, the team had Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Fabrégas, Walcott and Tomáš Rosický out for several months, and in Rosický’s case, 19 months in total.
When the attacking players returned, immediately the defence collected injuries. Bacary Sagna, Gaël Clichy, Gallas, Djourou, Senderos and goalkeeper Manuel Almunia were ruled out for the crunch games in April and May, where they were needed the most.
The list continues to get longer and provide a headache for Wenger at the start of this season.
Injuries play a part so regularly at the Emirates it’s time to give them a squad number.
Maybe 13 perhaps?
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