Injury Epidemic - Gunflash 536

The following article was published in the December 2009 issue of Gunflash - The Official Arsenal Supporters' Club Fanzine.


It is said that injuries even themselves out, but you could forgive Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for not believing a word of it. The ankle injury to Robin van Persie in Holland’s friendly international against Italy last month was just one of a long series of misfortunes suffered by the Gunners. 
           
Already this season Arsenal have lost Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Lukasz Fabianski, Nicklas Bendtner, Theo Walcott, Johan Djourou, Denilson and Kieran Gibbs to injury for significant periods. Now Van Persie, the club’s best player last season and outstanding in this campaign, is another long-term casualty. The injury to the Dutch striker is more serious than first thought. Ruptured ligaments have ruled Van Persie out for four or five months and forced him to undergo surgery in Amsterdam. 
         
The bad news on the injury front seems relentless. Clichy's deputy at left-back, Gibbs, limped out of England's Under-21 match against Lithuania last month. Thankfully, the damage to Gibbs's right foot was no worse than severe bruising - a verdict that must have had Wenger sighing with relief. Unfortunately, Wenger's relief was short-lived, for on Gibbs's return to Arsenal's first team against Standard Liege, he broke the first metatarsal in his left foot and is expected to be absent for about three months. One has to feel sorry for the Arsenal manager, whose satisfaction with the team progressing to the knockout stage of the Champions League and topping their group, was tempered by Gibbs's rotten luck. And how Wenger must dread those irritating mini breaks for international football more than anybody because Gunners players always seem to return the worse for wear.
         
Is it sheer bad luck or are there other factors involved? Is there something in the way they train that makes Arsenal players more vulnerable to injury? Does their footwear offer sufficient protection to withstand the fiercest of challenges?  Or is it simply that Arsenal are one of the most fouled teams in the Premier League and therefore more likely to incur injuries?
       
Whatever the reason, since the club left Highbury for the Emirates stadium three years ago, the fates seem to have conspired against Wenger. Last season Arsenal were deprived of the services of Cesc Fabregas and William Gallas for significant spells. The season before that, Eduardo sustained his horrific leg injury against Birmingham which kept him out for the best part of the year, and then there was Tomas Rosicky, who spent 18 months on the treatment table and must have wondered if he was going to play competitive football again. Had these two stayed fit there is good reason to believe that Arsenal’s title challenge would not have faltered in 2008 and that they would have gone further in the Champions League than the unlucky quarter-final defeat by Liverpool. 
        
This season’s tale of woe includes the Poland goalkeeper, Fabianski, and Walcott, who were injured almost immediately after returning from long absences. Walcott aggravated a long-standing shoulder injury playing for England Under-21s in the summer, which was a blow to his chances of going to the World Cup in South Africa with the senior side next year, and then, on his return to Arsenal’s first team in October, damaged medial knee ligaments in the home game against Birmingham after a shuddering challenge by Liam Ridgewell, which surprisingly went unpunished by Lee Probert, the referee. 
         
Much to my dismay, the former Ipswich, Tottenham, Manchester United and Scotland forward Alan Brazil, talking on his early-morning radio show, saw nothing wrong with Ridgewell’s tackle. “He got the ball, it’s as simple as that,” he said. Actually, Alan, it’s not as simple or as straightforward as that. The fact that Ridgewell got the ball was more by luck than judgment before he clattered into Walcott, leaving him writhing on the turf. It was a reckless tackle and Brazil was talking tosh. Following his logic, Brazil would presumably see nothing wrong with a two-footed tackle as long as the player touched the ball. By contrast, Graham Poll, the former high-profile referee and a frequent guest on Brazil’s show, thought Ridgewell’s tackle was worthy of a red card. I wouldn’t go quite that far - yellow would have been more appropriate - but it was the kind of challenge that made you wince and that football can do without.  
     
One of my wishes for 2010 is that Arsenal can go through a whole month without a serious injury. If they can, they will probably end a trophy drought which has lasted since their FA Cup final victory over Manchester United in 2005. But the way their luck is going, Wenger would be advised to assume that won’t happen and to make a signing - or two - in the January transfer window. With Emmanuel Adebayor being sold to Manchester City during the summer and Van Persie and Bendtner confined to the sidelines, Arsenal are left with only one out-and-out forward, Eduardo, as they enter the time of the season that often sorts out the men from the boys. One wonders whether the promising young Mexican, Carlos Vela, can step up to the plate or whether Wenger is tempted to recall Jay Simpson and Henri Lansbury from their loans to Queens Park Rangers and Watford respectively. Both players have shone for their Championship clubs.
          
Perhaps Arsenal can prosper without outside help. Wenger has unwavering faith in his squad as well as his first choice XI and one of the encouraging aspects of the season is that the club’s goals have been shared around. This is a tribute to the fluidity and variety of Arsenal’s football and if they continue to score at a similar rate they will top the century mark at the end of the season. Fabregas’s finishing has been fabulous, fellow midfielder Abou Diaby has weighed in with some valuable goals, as has Andrey Arshavin, and there have been important contributions from the centre-backs, Thomas Vermaelen and Gallas, who are such a threat from set-pieces and have scored for their respective countries, Belgium and France, as well as their clubs. Van Persie, of course, was a persistent marksman until his untimely injury.
      
January will be a fascinating month, with the reopening of the transfer window and the effect on the leading Premier League clubs of the African Cup of Nations. Arsenal will be without Alex Song and Emmanuel Eboue, although Chelsea, who are formidably strong, will lose the most players. On the other hand, Manchester United won’t be adversely affected and the fact that they are well placed to pounce if Chelsea falter, despite missing Cristiano Ronaldo and seldom looking convincing, will set the alarm bells ringing among the other contenders for the Premier League title, especially as United nearly always finish the season like an express train. I suspect Arsenal must do the same if they want to finish above either of these heavyweights.