Mikel Arteta gave his thoughts on the injuries that are affecting Arsenal.
The absence of the top two central defenders at the club was costly against Aston Villa and the offensive department was threadbare in the weeks before the international break. Even the acquisition of eight summer signings has not been enough to nip the injury issue in the bud. So what is going on?
*“Losing Max Dowman again, it's obviously not ideal with Leandro Trossard, who is just coming back, that we have to manage the minutes. Willy is still not there. We've not got Big Gabi, and we have other players that they could only play certain minutes. Like, for example, Riccardo Calafiori the other day. But it's a situation that we have managed since the beginning of the season.*
“We are in December, so it's been almost five months in a remarkable way, and we're going to continue.
“We don't have time to train. So, training is not there. But the fact that you are missing players, you are loading other players more. That's a consequence of that and it's a really dangerous. The fact that we have some others who have long-term contracts that haven't been with us since the beginning of the season. But, yeah, it's a test for the team, and so far, we have reacted very, very well to that.
“We try the players in the best conditions to perform at the highest level. For example, Viktor Gyokeres injury, we're missing two games without Viktor. Every time, he’s come back, without a pre-season, and at some point, he gets injured. Mikel Merino had to do that role because Leo wasn’t fit, or Gabriel Martinelli wasn’t fit. You could see Mikel on the weekend. He needed some help.
“You have to separate the kinds of injuries that they have. Some of them have been long-term and acute injuries, especially with some of the key players who give you a lot of days out. It's something that we are constantly looking at. As I said, we have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing. That gives a lot of stress and then more injuries.
“We are on it and I'm happy with what we are doing in terms of the medical stuff and everything that we are trying to do together. Sometimes, as well, we need some people to go in our time.
“It's not only one season. It's about some players that they have played. It starts to get overloaded and you start to ask them again to play. Others, because, as well, the moment that you have an injury, you are more likely to have another injury. That's been a consequence of some states as well.
“At the moment, we're just focussing on bringing the players back, and hopefully it will be a matter of weeks. We know how important those weeks are going to be. We're going to come into the period where a lot of things start to get defined in that period and hopefully, we’re going to have them.”