Revealed: The truth behind Arsenal's terrible injury record - and

how your club shapes up

Exclusive: Data seen by Telegraph Sport proves Arsenal have suffered more injuries
than their Premier League rivals, raising questions over Arsene Wenger's methods

Revealed: The truth behind Arsenal's terrible injury record - and

how your club shapes up
Jeremy Wilson By Jeremy Wilson4:42PM GMT 22 Dec 2014 Comments123 Comments
Have Arsenal really had more injuries than their competitors?
As Martin Skrtel exploited familiar fragility in the Arsenal defence to head
Liverpool's late equaliser on Sunday, you had to wonder whether it would all have
been rather different if Laurent Koscielny was on the pitch. But Koscielny is in
Arsenals treatment room just now. Along with Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Mikel
Arteta and Jack Wilshere.
It is a place that other first-team regulars, notably Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud,
Mathieu Debuchy, Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal, have become familiar with this
season.
Persistent injuries were an issue that was even addressed by chief executive Ivan
Gazidis in his quarterly update to Arsenal shareholders on Friday. It is frustrating
for everyone that the run of injuries we have sustained in the first third of the
season has meant we have only seen flashes of this talented squad's true
potential, he wrote.
The frustration for supporters, however, is that it feels like this is nothing new.
Arsenal led the Premier League for most of last season before their fleeting title
challenge was derailed amid the loss of Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere and Walcott. Other
recent campaigns have followed similarly infuriating patterns. So does the
anecdotal sense of Arsenal suffering disproportionately really stand up to scrutiny?
Ben Dinnery is the founder of Premier Injuries Ltd and the countrys leading data
injury analyst. With the cooperation of some clubs, and help from other sources, he
has compiled a database of comparative Premier League injuries over the past
decade.
The clubs reluctance to reveal certain details means that the research cannot be
absolutely perfect, and will be disputed in places, but it is certainly the most
comprehensive available analysis. And Dinnerys stats, exclusively prepared for the
Telegraph, clearly demonstrate that Arsenal does experience an unusually high
number of injuries, even if Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester
United have also been similarly affected.

In the 11 seasons researched from 2003-4 to 2013-14, Arsenal suffered 312

significant injuries which led to the player being out for 10 days or more. That is
exactly 100 more than Chelsea, while Arsenals total number of injuries was above
the Premier League average in 10 out of the 11 campaigns, including each of the
last seven completed seasons. The trend is continuing, perhaps even accelerating,
this year.

With 25 injuries, Arsenal have had more than any other Premier League club since
August. Perhaps even more revealing, however, is the total number of days lost to
significant injury. In the decade since 2004-5, Arsenal players have lost 13,161 days
to injury. Only Newcastle have lost more at 13,344.
Yet the statistics become even starker when compared to Arsenals main rivals,
especially Chelsea. In that same period, Chelsea have lost first-team players for
almost half the number of days as Arsenal at 7,217. There are also significant
differences with Liverpool at 9,287 days, Manchester City (10,053) and Everton
(10,530). Once again, Tottenham and Manchester United are relatively high on this
table at respectively 12,050 and 11,833 days, albeit still behind Arsenal.

This season, the trend is again set to continue. In terms of significant injuries (when
a player is out for 10 days or more), Arsenal are behind only Newcastle and
Manchester United of the 20 Premier League clubs. Yet add in every injury and they
have already lost players this season for 874 days more than any other Premier
League club. Leaders Chelsea, by comparison, have so far lost players for only 256
days.
The pattern is again reinforced when you look back over recent seasons. Arsenal
had the highest number of days lost to significant injuries last season, in 2009-10
and 2007-8, as well as the second highest in 2011-12 and 2010-11.
Why does it keep happening?
This is much more than a million-dollar question when you consider the knock-on
implications of losing so many key players for critical matches. It is a question that
Arsenal have explored deeply over the past year even the playing surface at the
Emirates has been analyzed and they believe that it is down to a combination of
reasons.
We continue to work hard to improve our prevention of injuries and to accelerate
recovery but it is clear there is no single contributing factor, Gazidis told
shareholders last week. That is hard to dispute but there is still more that can be
done with the data to help further understanding.
As well as the absolute injury numbers, Dinnery has also broken down his research
to separate muscular injuries from the rest. There is a belief in the sports medicine

profession that muscular, or what are termed soft-tissue injuries, are almost always
preventable.
It is why Wenger has been so particularly perturbed by the frequent absence this
season of both Ramsey and Arteta to muscle problems. Impact-related ailments, of
the sort suffered by Giroud and Wilshere, are more freakish and less controllable.
Arsenal, though, have also had the most muscular injuries in the Premier League so
far this season at 14. The comparative figures dating back over the seven previous
seasons to 2007-8 also show that only Manchester United have had more.

Questions, then, can legitimately be asked about Arsenals methods. Unless your
name is Raymond Verheijen the former Wales physio who has claimed that there is
a career-threatening process at Arsenal that is structural few professionals in the
industry are willing to speak openly about their theories. One former Arsenal player,
however, told The Telegraph that Wengers training methods which place an
emphasis on relatively short but intense sessions is a part of the issue.
Players need more rest now and more individually tailored programs but Arsene
has his methods that he believes in, he said. There was a sense that Wenger did
ease the intensity in the second half of last season following a spate of injuries but
that he has largely since gone back to his methods.

Other recurring comments are that Wenger should be more willing to rotate his
squad and be more cautious when bringing players back from injury. The suspicion
of too many games was hard to avoid in the case of Wilshere in 2011 but also
Giroud and Koscielny over the past year. Inside Arsenal, there is also a feeling that
the size of the squad might be a comparative factor.
Against that, it has been noticeable this season that Chelsea and Southampton have
largely avoided injuries and relied heavily on a smaller core of players. There are
many conflicting theories.
Research by one Premier League club - who have an excellent injury record has
concluded that the over-playing theory is largely a myth and that, with the right
recovery, physical limits are more often reduced by mentality.
Against that, some voices close to Arsenal have argued that fitness coach Tony
Colbert and assistant Boro Primorac can be too willing to encourage Wenger to push
the players.
What is certain is that Wenger can seem overly paternalistic in keeping faith with
players who have suffered repeated injuries. Abou Diaby would be the most obvious
example but, if problems continue to recur, is there also an argument that difficult
decisions may ultimately have to be made in relation to a Ramsey, Wilshere,
Walcott or Gibbs? Given that players with a history of major injuries are often more
prone to connected problems, there is the clear danger that Arsenal have become
stuck in a vicious cycle.
In the thick of it: Arsene Wenger's training methods are under scrutiny
Some of Wengers recent recruitment has also posed questions. Yaya Sanogo had
suffered regularly with injury earlier in his career while, this year, both David Ospina
and Kim Kallstrom were signed even with existing ailments.
There is also the perennial question of whether Arsenals style of play and the
perception that they are somehow soft-centred has been a contributory factor.
As well as the high incidence of muscular injuries, there have certainly been periods
when they have suffered an unusual number of serious impact injuries.
In 2007-8, for example, only five of Arsenals 32 injuries were muscular. At that
time, Wenger certainly felt Arsenal were victims of something more sinister than
bad luck or mistakes in their own preparation.
Ask any player whos played here, ask Vieira or Petit, if he has been targeted
without any intention of playing the ball, just to kick him out of the game and theyll
tell you they have, he said. Look at the players we have lost here. Diaby,
deliberate foul from behind. Rosicky, deliberate foul. Eduardo, deliberate foul.
Walcott, deliberate foul. Adebayor and Sagna got injured with a deliberate foul on
him.

According to Opta, Arsenal has been the most tackled team in the Premier League
this season and also the fourth most fouled.
What is being done?
In fairness, Wenger has complained far less in recent years of his players being
targeted and spoken much more of how he must look within for some answers.
Significant changes have been made, most obviously in the appointment last
summer of Shad Forsythe as the new head of athletic performance enhancement.
Forsythe was part of Germanys backroom staff at the World Cup and, according to
Wenger, there have been a lot of changes since his arrival. Wenger says that the
changes largely relate to preparation and the club has moved to more individually
tailored programmes.
Small things, like seeing the substitutes rotationally warm-up even before they
might come on, are noticeable from the sidelines. We know a lot more than 18
years ago when I arrived but still not enough to predict 100 per cent scientifically
what happens to everybody, said Wenger.
Changes are also being made at the clubs training ground, with the clubs board
willing to spend whatever Wenger wants in terms of the backroom support and
facilities. Arsenal first moved to their London Colney base in 1999, with Wenger
designing the facility to a specification that made it widely regarded as the very
best in the Premier League. Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United,
Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur have since built even more modern training
centres and Arsenal are now preparing to seek planning permission on projects that,
over the next three years, will run into the millions of pounds.
The club has already begun working with architects on a new athletic development
centre within the Colney base, as well as additional space for offices and analysis. A
new medical centre was completed at Colney in October 2011 and, at the clubs
Hale End Youth Academy, construction work will take place over the next year on
new medical and educational facilities, as well as a new gym.
We are also reviewing our training ground facilities at London Colney and will be
submitting a detailed planning permission application for a significant new
development in the New Year, says Gazidis. This is all designed to ensure we
continue to move forward as a club on and off the pitch and create the best possible
environment for success. One thing I can assure everyone about is that we have
some of the very best people in the game working on this at this club.
The proof, of course, will be in the comparative injury stats in the coming seasons.
No improvement is yet evident and, indirectly, it is no exaggeration to suspect that
Wengers job may ultimately depend on finding the right solutions. Only three times
since 2003-4 has a team ever won the Premier League with more than 27 injuries.

Arsenal has had that many or more every year since 2007. It is surely also no
coincidence that Arsenal won their last title in 2003-4, the season when they had
their fewest injuries of Dinnerys 11 year study. The coming weeks, inevitably, will
see the focus turn to Wengers transfer strategy.
His tactics will also be endlessly scrutinized but, if there is one single change in
2015 that could make Arsenal truly competitive with Chelsea and Manchester City
again, it would be for his key players to be consistently fit and healthy.
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