“GABRIEL hinted he WILL be fit to face Manchester United on Wednesday — despite an injury concern.” So says [The Sun](https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/32050239/mikel-arteta-gabriel-injury-arsenal-man-utd/),. always ready to use a capital letter where it is not needed.
Meanwhile, the [Manchester Evening New](https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/arsenal-suffer-double-injury-setback-30499820)s tell us that Arsenal suffered a double injury setback ahead of tomorrow’s game “as six could miss Premier League clash.” That sounds pretty shocking, so it is worth a look.
We are told that both Gabriel Magalhaes and Riccardo Calafiori were taken off early during the 5-2 thumping (my word not theirs) of West Ham on Saturday, “while Mikel Merino and Thomas Partey were also missing. Unfortunately for Arteta, that’s not the full extent of the injuries.”
So let’s see what the esteemed Mancuian journalists have discovered to suggest six could be missing. Well, first there is **Gabriel Magalhae**s listed again, this time with the subheading, “Injury: Unknown.”
Various journalists made up the notion that he was suffering from concussion and at least the ManC Eve News has the courtesy to say “that was not the case and it was instead a similar problem to the one he felt against Sporting CP earlier this week.” He’s probably ok.
As for **Mikel Merino,** they tell us that the possible return date for him is, and I quote in full from the Mancunian font of knowledge, “Possible return date: Manchester United (H) – Wednesday, December 4. So he’s not injured.
### **Thomas Partey** – there are several paragraphs on the player, but really they don’t amount to what most of us might call “information”. But again, if we plough on through an absolutely massive array of links to other articles we get “Possible return date: Manchester United (H) – Wednesday, December 4.” Oh.
### **Riccardo Calafiori** is different, for his injury is listed as “Unknown” with a subtext that says, ” there is no major concern but it is clear he may not yet be at full fitness. He celebrated the win online. “Possible return date: Manchester United (H) – Wednesday, December 4.”
### Next is Ben White and we know that he is out for quite a while after an operation. He won’t be back until next year – but then next year starts in just 28 days or so (I may have lost count somewhere) – that might not be too bad.
So actually the catastrophic collapse of the entire Arsenal squad actually comes down to very little. How strange for a Mancunian paper to write the headline that says “Arsenal suffer double injury setback for Man United as six could miss Premier League clash” when in fact it is one player. Maybe it is something in the water these journo chappies are drinking.
But I think it is also an attempt to hide just how bad Manchester United have been away from home.
What I have done in the table below is recorded Manchester United’s away form for the last four seasons, and looked at how they are doing away from home this season and from that extrapolated Manchester U’s likely away results by the end of this season.
That estimate, in the top line below shows them getting just 21 points away from home this season, lower even than their 2021/22 campaign, which was pretty awful away from home.
So to be clear the top line in the table below extrapolates the results so far, the second line is their actual away results thus far, and then the subsequent lines are the away results in recent seasons.
Man U estimate on current form
19
4
9
6
18
30
\-12
21
13
Manchester United away 2024/5
6
1
3
2
6
5
1
6
6
Manchester United away 2023/24
19
8
3
8
26
30
\-4
27
5
Manchester United away2022/23
19
8
3
8
22
33
\-11
27
9
Manchester United away 2021/22
19
6
5
8
25
35
\-10
23
2
Manchester United away 2020/21
19
12
7
0
35
16
19
43
What this shows is that if ManU actually carry on as now they will have a worse set of away results than in any of the previous seasons this decade. And this could be worrying for Man U for although their current run of form shows five wins and two draws in the last seven games, only one of those seven games was away from Very Old Trafford – and that was away to the mighty Ipswich.
And yes I know I have mentioned this before, but I do get told off for going on and on about Arsenal’s awful run of away fixtures earlier this season, but here we see the other side of the coin. A very very easy run of homefixtures – until now suddenly they face Arsenal. Away.
True, in those games ManU have scored 19 goals, which is impressive. But really, when you are Manchester U, and you are playing the likes of Leicester City twice (once in the league and once in the league cup), PAOK Salonika, Ipswich, and Bodo Glimt, **all at home except the mighty Ipswich**, and you only get three goals a game, then something still isn’t right.