On paper, you can’t really question the quality in the Arsenal squad. There are goals and assists throughout the team, while the lack of a traditional ‘enforcer’ in the midfield is compensated for with the aggressive and tireless play of smaller midfielders in both Mathieu Flamini and Aaron Ramsey.
Stripping away what was an initially painful and headache-inducing summer transfer period for Arsenal fans, it wasn’t totally wide of the mark to say the team had a lot to build on for this season, perhaps even going on to say some form of silverware was attainable due to the quality within the ranks.
The problem that many had with Arsene Wenger’s high praise of his team and their credentials as title challengers was that everyone could see what would eventually come to pass. Arsenal, at the time of writing, sit atop the Premier League table, while having also successfully navigated through to the group stages of the Champions League. That opening day defeat to Aston Villa doesn’t look too bad considering the losses the more obvious title challengers have endured thus far.
But what is the price? At present Arsenal are without Lukas Podolski, Santi Cazorla, Thomas Vermaelen, Mikel Arteta, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, with Per Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky having also missed the previous game. A lot has been said of the strength of other Premier League clubs’ benches, but Arsenal had thrown together a good starting XI in the win over Sunderland, so wouldn’t those injured players combine for one of the most impressive benches in the league if they were all fit?
But somewhere you have to dismiss the lack of luck Arsenal have throughout a campaign. Everyone gets injuries, but it’s the preparation that needs to be done that ensures an injury-hit squad isn’t totally derailed from achieving its goals. For all that Wenger has done to get back into the good books of the Arsenal faithful following the signing of Mesut Ozil, it’s still very much mismanagement to not adequately prepare for the inevitable. No matter how good a squad is in terms of quality or how high the camaraderie is, injuries cannot be sidestepped.
One of the major issues is the way Wenger likes to handle his squad, insisting on few changes over the course of a summer. That may be fair, especially with the current group needing enhancing more than wholesale changes. But you get the sense that the Arsenal manager doesn’t acknowledge the importance of bit-part players. He champions the idea of buying only those who are better than what he has, even though he hardly ever follows that ideal, while neglecting the use of squad players who would be accepted as peripheral figures. Every great team needs high-end players with the quality to see out the rough seas of a lengthy campaign, but each of those teams, and in every sport, need individuals who fill out the squad; the figures who are on low wages and will sell very few, if any shirts but who will nevertheless step in and do a job when the injury bug or fixture congestion hits.
It’s one of the aspects of Wenger’s management style that he needs to curb if he is to bring success to Arsenal again. The team may be winning and the quality of football may be on the rise again, but there still needs to be a look ahead to what will come in a month or two. As much as coaches and players talk up the importance of the next game and that they’re looking no further than next week, it simply can’t be done. Many Premier League clubs have a 25-man squad with which to deal with four competitions as well as international breaks. English football has seen little value in the winter break, so clubs continue right through the Christmas period and all of the pressure those fixtures pile on. For Wenger, this is nothing new. He’s been in this country and in this job for 17 years, and yet the annoyance among supporters is that he still hasn’t grasped the idea of holding or retaining a strong squad. Everyone wants to see youngsters come through and realise their potential, but there is a balance that can be found in nurturing them and remaining fresh and competitive throughout a season.
It’s not a matter of bad luck when there are things that can be done to limit the impact of lengthy injuries.
Is it bad luck on the injury front, or do we have to look at the poor preparation from Arsene Wenger?
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