Arsenal's Serious Injuries at an All-Time High

Arsenal's physio, Colin Lewin, was interviewed on the club site yesterday and he gave his views on the number of injuries we have had this season. He said it has to do with the amount of games the players play and a few other factors as well.

Apparently our players run the farthest in the Premier league and they have the most sprints as well and both of these factors have to be taken into account. He also said it had been a freak season for traumatic injuries as we would normally expect one or two fractures a season but it's on seven this season. 

He also said that because of the amount of players out at a time it puts pressure on other players as they have to play more often and that in turn leads to less recovery time and more injuries as the team can't be rotated as often as we would want.

The final factor is the fact that about 90 percent of our players are internationals and those extra games put even more strain on the players. He said that our injuries are comparable to other teams who play as many games as we do in a season but that of course it seems worse when it happens to the team you support.

He put the amount of traumatic injuries down to bad tackles but he didn't blame the other teams as he said it was just a freak season. When asked about some of the players on the treatment table he said that Cesc should comfortably make the World Cup but he is out for the rest of the season since the tackle on him by Puyol in the first leg of the Champions league quarter final.

Speaking of Djourou and Gibbs he said that he expects them to train fully with the squad within the next two weeks and he also said that RVP's return to the squad for full training is imminent. 

I don't expect to see Djourou or Gibbs play again this season unless it's for a few minutes in the last game of the season but I hope that RVP can come back fairly soon. I said yesterday that a role as a late sub against the Spuds was a possibility but it will probably be too soon as will the game against Wigan only four days later.

It would probably mean that the home game against Man City on April 24 would be the most likely date for him to return and with a certain ex player of ours in their side I'm sure he will be looking forward to that game. There's a little bit of unfinished business between him and the ex 25 going back to our 4-2 defeat away to them in September. 

The boss spoke after the Barcelona defeat of the need to strengthen the squad in the summer but it's not the first time I've heard him say that and he hasn't exactly always acted on it in the past. As always I'm sure any signings will depend on finding players better than the ones he has already, at the right price and within the club's wage structure.

They are very narrow guidelines to seek out any new players and it won't make it easy. It would appear that Chamakh will come in on a free transfer from Bordeaux when the season is over and like most other fans I would like to see a goalkeeper, a centre back and possibly some cover for Song in defensive midfield too. 

I'm sure the boss is making the most of the time the players have between the Barcelona game and the Spuds game to work on tactics and recovery with the players that are still available to him. Their defeat against Sunderland last Saturday was a very poor performance by them as it could and should have been a lot worse except that Bent missed two penalties.

It won't be easy for them to recover from that defeat but a FA Cup semi final against Portsmouth on Sunday afternoon is a game they just have to get up for. If we're lucky that game will go to extra time to weaken their players just a little before we play them three days later. 

Our ladies team beat Millwall 3-1 away from home in the league last night and they have to play every three or four days from here until the end of their season to make up for the games they have in hand on the teams above them in the league.

The league is too close to call between Arsenal, Everton and Leeds and we have to play both of them at home and away in the next five weeks as well as playing Everton in the Ladies FA Cup final during that time. Our ladies have dominated the domestic game in England for a long time now but this season seems to be even tighter than ever and it's possible that they could finish as low as third in the league although I doubt it very much.

The winning goal in Arsenal's goal of the month competition was Nasri's effort at home to Porto in the Champions league and it won by a massive margin as it took 70% of the votes cast. It was a very worthy winner and it will be right up there for the Arsenal goal of the season award as well I'm sure. 

Finally for today it would seem that if Stan Kroenke is going to make his bid for the club we might well see it as soon as next month. Under stock market rules he has to offer the highest price he paid for any shares in the last year and last May he bought some shares at £10,500 each but since then he has only paid about £8,500 a share which would mean he could offer £2,000 less per share in May.

With his American football team as good as sold he is due to receive about $300 million and he could well use it to purchase Arsenal although he would have to add some more of his loot to it. I'm not so sure I would like him as our owner but he's infinitely more acceptable than the alternative of Usmanov if it came to a choice. That's it for today.

Here's a look at Arsenal clinching the league at WHL in 1971 on the way to our first double.

See you tomorrow.