Fragile Brittle Arsenal



ARSENAL has become a club synonymous with injuries be it Niggly injuries or freakish injury like Bernd Leno's .  Here I take a look at arsenal's  recent injury woos. 


We might all recall this injury....Ramsey's injury at Stoke which almost ended his career . It's almost become the norm at arsenal that our players get these injuries and so far no inquiries been made.
Mathew Debuchy was a tough tackling RB who after joining arsenal incurred constant shoulder,Hamstring and thigh issues. Laurent Koscienly,Santi Cazorla and Per Mertesecker are other examples of unfulfilled potential as a result of injuries. Cazorla has since returned to Spanish top flight at Villareal and at 34 is fit and perfoming even better and has returned  to Spanish national team. 


Let me come to more recent memory ......Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin.Its not hard to see that these two players have not been the same since both had Cruciate Ligament injuries.
Holding was out for 248 days from 5 December 2018 to August 18 2019 while Hector was out for two spells accumulating to 270 days. Neither has regained their previous form nor frightening pace that was identified with either.
Bellerin was one of the best overlapping fullbacks of the modern era but since his injury he lacks the pace to recover as fast as he used to . His positioning has also become suspect despite Arteta's best efforts. 
Lastly this .......
The sight of arguably arsenal's player of the season writhing in pain after a freakish knee injury. The list goes on and on.......Kieran Tierney,Calum Chambers ,Lucas Torreira,Pablo Mari,Cedric Soares & Sokratis all have had big injuries and it remains to be seen whether we'll be able to see their best at the Emirates . With Mari it's a curious Case because since 2010 Mari hadn't missed more than 3 games due to injuri ...and now he's set to miss the Remainder of the season and quite possibly next season's star.
This makes me wonder ....what assurance is there that when Arsenal lands a top CB that these recurring issues won't again come up.
Every team has injury problems but in the last decade none can surpass arsenal's injury list.


Whatever you make of these injuries at arsenal I don't know but what I am sure about is that it has to be addressed. 
Southampton up next for the Gunners followed by an FA cup quarter final against Sheffield united.

Hopefully the rotten luck with injuries will have subsided.
Cheers :) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Full Stadiums: Kenyan football fan culture is on the ascend

New dawn or same old Harambee Stars?

Kenya 1-2 Gabon: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's brace sinks a brave Harambee Stars at a packed Nyayo stadium.