When comparing Arsenal to other clubs I have looked atChelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. The reason for this is that these teams are the most similar to Arsenal, not only in the budget for their medical staff, but also because these four teams have consistently been in the Champions League and therefore have played roughly the same amount, and types, of games that Arsenal have.
So, over this period Liverpool have suffered on average 42 injuries per calendar year, Chelsea have averaged 45, Man Utd 57 and Arsenal 65. Now there are obviously some flaws with this data in that it only specifies the number of injuries and not the length of the injuries. However, it gives a good idea of the problems faced at each club and we know for a fact that Arsenal have also had a considerable amount of long-term injuries over this period. Moreover, part of the medical staff’s responsibilities is to help prevent injuries as well as treat them and these figures are quite damning on this issue.
So this tells us that Arsenal do appear to have a general problem with injuries in comparison to other clubs. But what do these figures tell us about Arsenal’s problems since Gary Lewin left the club? Well in the years previous to Gary Lewin’s departure Arsenal averaged 62.5 injuries per season and after it we have averaged 75. That is a considerable jump, especially considering that during that time advances in medicine have been made to the point that we should be better equipped to deal with injuries.
Other factors
When this debate comes up amongst Arsenal fans the other arguments include the fact that people foul us more and also our small squad means that players have to play more games. To an extent both of these are true. Playing possession football does invite more fouls on to your team – the more time you have the ball the more likely you are to get fouled. However, against the vast majority of opposition teams all of the top clubs play a form of possession football and it doesn’t seem to affect them nearly as badly as it does Arsenal. In terms of the small squad I think there might be a case to argue there but that doesn’t explain why the figures jumped so sharply the year after Gary Lewin left for England.
Ultimately it seems quite hard to argue that Gary Lewin’s departure was, as so many people have said, the root of all our problems when we were clearly struggling before. However what these figures do suggest is that his departure certainly hasn’t helped. Arsenal’s recently built medical centre will hopefully go some way to alleviating the problem but one thing is for certain: it is an issue that has taken too long to be addressed.
For more Arsenal news follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
Written by Hamish Mackay for FootbllFanCast.com
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