The unluckiest club with injuries or the most negligent in prevention?
Arsenal may have looked to solve their torrid injury record in the summer by acquiring the services of Germany World Cup fitness expert Chad Forsythe, but it certainly doesn’t seem to have bucked the trend.
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Indeed, in statistics revealed by France Football, there have been 54 individual injuries to members of the Arsenal first team which has seen players miss a combined 150 matches so far this season for the Gunners.
Just to put this into context, Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League injury league, according to France Football, and way ahead of the majority of their top four rivals.
Whilst Manchester United are also riding high, the Gunners other top four, Champions and Premier League rivals have all fared staggeringly better.
Manchester City for instance have had almost 20 fewer injuries with 35 problems ailing their squad, Chelsea have 32 whilst North London Derby rivals Tottenham sit on 30 a staggering 24 fewer injuries than the Gunners.
Below, we analyse just how many injuries Wenger’s squad have had by looking at each individual player that has been on the sidelines so far this season:
Lukas Podolski: 0 games missed, 1 injury
Call us cynical but this might not have been a real issue.
Podolski’s absence coincided around the the time he was set to leave the club to Inter Milan.
Funny that.
Hector Bellerin: 0 games missed, 1 injury
The Spaniard could miss out against Crystal Palace, but this will only be his first injury since his impressive first team emergence this season.
Mathieu Flamini: 0 games Missed, 2 injuries
Another who has only recently acquired an injury this season, but perhaps in Flaimini’s case it says more about his current place in the squad, since the emergence of Francis Coquelin, that he hasn’t been afforded the opportunity to get injured…
Alexis Sanchez: 1 game missed, 1 injury
Luckily for the Gunners their main driving force this season has seemed almost impenetrable to their injury curse and has only missed one game so far.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 1 game missed, 4 injuries
A groin problem has kept the versatile England international out since the end of January but he looks set to recover in time for their crucial Champions League clash against AS Monaco.
Wojciech Szczesny: 2 games missed, 1 injury
In an injury that could only happen at Arsenal, it was one of the Gunners own players that somehow managed to injure Szczesny.
Kieran Gibbs collided with the Pole in Arsenal’s 2-1 loss to Man United, forcing youngster Emiliano Martinez to be start in-between the sticks for several games after occurring around the time David Ospina was also in the treatment room.
Tomas Rosicky: 3 games missed, 2 injuries
The veteran midfielder’s absence was never readily explained earlier in the season so it’s unclear what injuries he may have acquired.
Kieran Gibbs: 3 games missed, 4 injuries
The necessity for Gibbs’ fitness has waned with the impressive improvements of Nacho Monreal who seems to have become hardened in the off-season and shrugged off his previous nimble and nervous image.
Luckily Arsenal have had an able back-up on the left when needed.
Nacho Monreal: 4 games missed, 3 injuries
As has been said, the Spaniard has seemingly cast away his unreliable image and developed into a Premier League standard defender.
Indeed, Arsenal fans might even select him ahead of Gibbs and actually be concerned when he’s not available in defence.
Danny Welbeck: 4 games missed, 5 injuries
Luckily, Welbeck’s injuries occurred at the turn of the year, just as Olivier Giroud returned from the treatment table.
The Arsenal medical department perhaps employing a one in one out policy.
Aaron Ramsey: 6 games missed, 4 injuries
Three hamstring injuries this season has raised concerns about both Arsenal’s training methods and the Welshman’s durability.
Serge Gnabry: 7 games missed, 1 injury
Missing for much of the season after a knee injury suffered last season had yet to recover.
Could be making his way back to the first team in the second half of this campaign.
Yaya Sanogo: 7 games missed, 3 injuries
The Frenchman slipped in and out of the first team at the start of the campaign and has so far struggled during his Arsenal career to get to grips with the physical demands of the league.
Perhaps now a regular spell at Crystal Palace will see him develop into the forward Arsene Wenger hopes he’s got.
Laurent Koscielny: 8 games missed, 2 injuries
Arsenal’s decision not to buy a defender in the summer looked even more ridiculous when it became apparent Koscielny was suffering from chronic tendinitis in both of his achilles.
The Frenchman has since had to be managed on a game by game basis thought the pressing need for him to start has waned since the signing of Gabriel in January.
Olivier Giroud: 9 games missed, 1 injury
Another freak occurrence, Giroud broke his foot by simply attempting to block the ball against Everton.
You couldn’t make it up.
Jack Wilshere: 11 games missed, 5 injuries
Wilshere looked to be getting back to his best in the first half of the season, typified by his performance against Manchester City, after a couple of seasons in and out of the side after his breakthrough campaign in 2010/11
However, after a rough tackle by Paddy McNair of Man United, Wilshere has been out for the past three months but could return against Crystal Palace this weekend.
Theo Walcott: 12 games missed, 1 injury
Walcott started the season still rehabilitating his torn ACL he suffered in January 2014.
However, on his recovery from that serious injury he pulled his groin.
David Ospina: 12 games missed, 1 injury
The Colombian arrived at Arsenal with a knee injury hangover from the World Cup of which he eventually recovered.
However after being quickly brought on following a Wojciech Szczesny red card in the Champions League, Ospina re-injured the same muscle and was forced out for around three months.
Mathieu Debuchy: 13 games missed, 2 injuries
A quite incredulous first season at Arsenal has seen Debuchy badly sprain his ankle ligaments because he jumped for a header which caused him to miss almost three months.
But then just a month after returning from that problem, the Frenchman dislocated his shoulder after being pushed off the ball against Stoke City.
Talk about unlucky.
Mesut Ozil: 13 games missed, 2 injuries
In an injury which, again, could typify Arsenal’s incredible unluckiness, merely passing the ball against Chelsea in October caused a serious tear of Ozil’s knee ligament and saw him to miss three months of action.
Mikel Arteta: 15 games missed, 5 injuries
Despite coming to Arsenal with an injury record the now club captain had barely any issues in his first two seasons.
But age seems to be catching up with him now as he has struggled to stay fit for any prolonged periods in 2014/15 which has seen numerous relapses of a calf injury and surgery for a bone spur in his ankle.
Abou Diaby: 19 games missed, 2 injuries
It’s hardly a surprise Diary has missed the most games this season for Arsenal with the Frenchman perhaps being one of if not the unluckiest footballer ever.
His ankle, cruelly shattered in a rash challenge in 2006 has had serious repercussions for the rest of his career causing numerous injuries, niggles, problems and even at one point forcing to learn to run differently so as not to exacerbate his medical problems.
It looks as if his Arsenal career is destined to end in regret and despair as he looks set to exit the club at the end of his contract this season.
All injury information acquired from France Football.