Every season as the business end of the season approaches, one particular team is hit by a spate of injuries to their core players that results in the premature death of their title race. For several seasons now this team has had fate play cruel tricks on their players that leave them wounded. That team is Arsenal.
This year is no different. Just when things seemed to be going right, Samir Nasri picks up an injury.
On Sunday as Arsenal played Huddersfield in a crucial FA Cup tie, Nasri picked up a hamstring injury when chasing down a long ball. Wenger has expressed his regret in playing the Frenchman but the damage has already been done.
Samir Nasri has been without a shadow of a doubt Arsenal’s best player so far this season and has inspired Arsenal to many a victories this year.
He overcame the disappointment of being left out of France’s World Cup squad and has been firing on all cylinders. He has scored an extremely impressive 14 goals for Arsenal this season. It’s not only the goals he has been plundering in. His overall play has undergone a massive change and he has been an extremely influential player in Arsenal’s midfield.
In the absence of Fabregas and Van Persie he rose to the occasion and led Arsenal to several key victories. He has started delivering the goods consistently. There has been no denying that Nasri has always had potential to become one of the world’s best midfielders. But he has always been extremely inconsistent and dazzled in glimpses.
This season he has been a totally different player. He has set up goals, his linkup play has been exquisite and contributions to the team have been immense.
In the past couple of weeks we have got an idea of Arsenal’s first choice team. Song and Wilshere fill in the defensive midfielder roles. Nasri and Walcott play on the flanks while Fabregas plays the central midfielder role. Van Persie starts as Arsenal’s forward.
This team has been extremely impressive and has dominated teams including teams with the caliber of Chelsea. It looked like the real deal and the entire team was playing with a chemistry that was a joy to watch.
They linked up well with each other. Arsenal looked like real championship material when fielding this particular team.
Now with Nasri out it affects the entire team. Not only have Arsenal lost his brilliance and spark the momentum that has been generated over the past month has all gone. His absence affects Arsenal’s overall style of play.
Now Wenger faces a dilemma of whom to field in his place. Should he play the brilliant, effective and yet lazy Russian, Andrei Arshavin or should he start with either Chamakh or Bendtner to partner Van Persie up front.
No matter whom he decides to field the change in play is going to be evident and Arsenal risk losing all the momentum built over the past few weeks. Not only that in a few weeks time, Arsenal play Barcelona in a crucial Champions League fixture.
If Arsenal are to beat the Catalan giants they will need a fit and firing squad. They will definitely miss Nasri in their midfield.
Barcelona are the world’s best team in the world right now and Arsenal do have the quality to put up a great fight and even possibly win it. But for that they require a full strength squad. Which is a luxury they no longer have.
But this isn’t the first time Arsenal have had injuries affect their title challenge. Last season Arsenal were just 4 points behind leaders Chelsea when their title push collapsed.
The reason??
At that point Arsenal had close to 7 first team players injured. These included Van Persie, Fabregas, Arshavin, Ramsey and the first choice centre back pairing of Vermaelen and Gallas.
One can’t help but get the feeling that had it not been for injuries Arsenal could have lifted a trophy last season itself.
Three years back it was an injury to Eduardo that ended Arsenal’s title hopes. Eduardo had been superb in his first season at the Emirates and was scoring consistently. Then he had his leg broken in a match against Birmingham. After that Arsenal never recovered from the injury especially mentally.
That injury took place when Arsenal were leading the table by 5 points. Arsenal went onto finish 3rd, falling short by 4 points.
In the past few years, Arsenal have rarely been able to field a full strength squad often having 2-3 players injured at the least.
Sure, injuries are a part of the game. But no other team have suffered from injuries like the Gunners. This has been one of the primary reasons for Arsenal’s trophy drought.
Although Arsenal’s trophy drought cannot be blamed on injuries alone, it is extremely tough for a team to win with the spine of their team injured. Arsenal find themselves in this same situations almost every season.
Luck is essential to any successful title challenge and Arsenal have been lacking this key ingredient for several seasons now.
This time it looked like Vermaelen would be the only player to be injured come February, but sadly it was not to be.
With Nasri injured Arsenal find themselves in the very situation they were so desperate to avoid.
Now Arsenal can only hope that they are not hit by any more injuries and can continue to challenge for titles.
They have the talent and the squad but if the injuries continue to happen, they will find themselves in a similar situation from previous seasons.
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