Arsenal FC: The Return of Abou “Diabolical” Diaby from Injury

“Diabolical” sounds like a great nickname for a hard-man defensive midfielder who never gives up, and through graft and hard work does whatever it takes to stifle the opposition forwards and control the match. Unfortunately, Abou Diaby of Arsenal FC did not receive this name from his hard-man skills, but through succumbing to major lapses in concentration leading to disastrous consequences.

Diaby is a player who constantly divides opinion within the Arsenal community. He is capable of excellent performances, superior physicality, great passes, long striding runs cutting through the opposition defense and some high-quality goals. More often than not, though, he just as capable of misplaced passes, horrendous own goals, bad challenges, persistent injury problems, inconsistency, temperament issues and extreme lethargy at times.  

He has been nicknamed "Abou Diabolical" by some segments of the Arsenal fan base after several major mistakes—including a huge own goal against Manchester United, leading to a loss; and a red card against Newcastle United, leading to four unanswered goals. He will have to work hard to regain the trust of Arsenal fans and prove that he can improve on past performances and be an important player in Arsenal’s future.

When Diaby is in form, he is an excellent player for Arsenal and can put in some wonderful performances both offensively and defensively. But what Diaby truly needs is a consistent run without injuries in the first team. His best season for Arsenal so far was the 2009-2010 season, where he managed to stay fit and play in 40 first-team matches, scoring seven goals and assisting six.

Unfortunately, in the very next season Diaby suffered from a series of niggling injuries, holding back his growth and limiting his potential. He would put in a few appearances, start slowly getting back into form and then be out of the team with yet another injury. No player can play good football consistently when they are in and out of a team with injuries.

Also, in many of the games that he played in the 2010-2011 season he was often paired with Denilson in midfield, which added to his troubles as they were both inconsistent and anonymous in most of their matches together.

If Diaby can have a consistent run in the Arsenal first team, he can be a great player rotating into the midfield and giving us some options. Played alongside Song with Ramsey as the attacking midfielder, Diaby can contribute greatly to both defense and offense. To do this, though, he will have to stay injury free and slowly work his way back into the squad and regain the trust of the Arsenal supporters.

Diaby is currently in full training and needs to be brought back from his current injury gradually and not be thrown into any important matches until fully ready. He needs to begin with outings in several reserve team matches and work on regaining some fitness and form.

After these reserve team matches, he needs to be slowly brought back into the first-team squad as a substitute when the team is up against weaker opposition and in some cup matches. Only when he has shown that he can stay fit week in and week out and that he is back in good form should he be brought into the starting Arsenal lineup to add some rotation into the midfield.

Unfortunately, if Diaby continues to have consistent fitness and form issues and shows the inconsistency and laziness of past seasons, then the only choice that Arsene Wenger has is to try to sell him over the summer. We don’t need to be paying a large salary for a player constantly on the treatment table and not contributing anything to the team. If there are no buyers on the market, then a loan to a French Ligue 1 side would benefit Diaby.

It is up to Diaby if he will be the excellent box-to-box midfielder we know he can be and add some real depth to the Arsenal midfield, or if he will revert to Abou Diabolical and be sold in the summer transfer window for whatever we can get for him.

Regaining the trust of the Arsenal fans will be a major hurdle for Diaby, but if he is willing to work hard and give us his all then I hope that he shines for Arsenal and that the fans support him, as I feel he has great potential and brings an extra bit of class to the Arsenal midfield.