No Small Amount of Pain — 8/21/2011
By A.C. Mullins-Khatib—
Both Arsenal and Manchester United have seen their players dropping like flies in these early stages of the 2011/12 season. Leave it to the fickle gods of soccer to bless us with a match between the two sides next Sunday. That is, assuming each club is able to field a full team.
This afternoon (America time), Manchester United is set to kick-off at home against Tottenham. Check the list of missing players for the defending champions:
- Rio Ferdinand (hamstring injury, Aug. 28)
- Nemanja Vidic (calf injury, Sept. 24)
- Rafael (shoulder, Oct. ?)
- Antonio Valencia (ankle, Aug. 28)
- Michael Owen (back, Aug. 28)
- Darren Fletcher (match fitness, Aug. 28)
- Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez (concussion, doubtful)
- Johan Djourou (hamstring, Sept. 10)
- Kieran Gibbs (hamstring, Sept. 10)
- Abou Diaby (ankle, Oct. ?)
- Laurent Koscielny (back, doubtful)
- Gervinho (suspended, Sept. 17)
- Alex Song (suspended, Sept. 17)
- Emmanuel Frimpong (suspended, Sept. 10)
Each of the players will miss that Sunday match away against Manchester United, with Gervinho and Song missing an additional match against Swansea. Of course, Samir Nasri is a possible permanent addition to the list as with every passing moment it becomes less clear as to whether he’ll still be with the team come next match.
These early injury (and in Arsenal’s case suspension) issues are affecting both clubs for sure. On closer inspection though, the situations for the two teams are vastly different.
For United, Phil Jones and Johnny Evans are set to fill the defensive slots. Jones, while a new signing for United, made 26 appearances for Blackburn last season. For his part, Evans has been a regular replacement player at United, appearing in 49 games over three seasons. United will also be significantly bolstered by the expected return of left-back Patrice Evra from an ankle injury. Chicharito’s absence, while disappointing, is tempered by the availability of Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, and Danny Welbeck as options. For his part, Antonio Valencia was already set to be battling for a slot in a packed midfield with Nani and new signing Ashley Young.
Arsenal’s back-ups look much less convincing. 18-year-old Ignasi Miquel looks set to fill in at left-back this week after making his first senior team appearance coming on as a substitute for injured Laurent Koscielny. While Frimpong is able to play in the mid-week qualifier against Udinese, Jack Wilshere may have to be rushed back from his current ankle injury in order to fill out the midfield against United. Even the midfield players who aren’t injured have sometimes looked to be playing as if they were. Andrei Arshavin and Theo Walcott were uninspired enough as starters in their 2-0 defeat against Liverpool this past week. Their substitutes Nikolas Bendtner and Henri Landsbury failed to make impacts as well.
For Arsenal a defeat in the second-leg of their Champions League qualifier (after going up 1-0 at home in the first) would spell disaster in terms of lost revenue and prestige. A defeat against Manchester United on Sunday would leave them with a disheartening one point from three games. United have already qualified for the Champions League group stage, and a loss against Arsenal would leave them sitting on a disappointing–though not devastating–three points after three.
All of this combined has led to the doubts which have been steadily appearing around Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s capabilities to forge a successful season this time around. Doubts that add further to the sense that it’s Arsenal who are the team truly in a crisis.
It’s no wonder that Wenger is looking frustrated again.
This Is Not A Pitch 