The reason why Arsenal are getting so many injuries – and can they stop it?

Saka and Odegaard have already been sidelined this term (Picture: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Arsenal are no strangers to an injury crisis with perhaps the only surprise this latest edition has come so early in the season.

Already this term, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, William Saliba  and Ben White have been sidelined with issues with Kai Havertz still to feature having undergone minor knee surgery in late August. Gabriel Jesus meanwhile has not played since January.

Noni Madueke joined the walking wounded last weekend, forced off at half-time against Manchester City.

It could have been a lot worse. Saka’s hamstring injury was not bad as first feared, back on Sunday having missed just three games. While Odegaard has twice injured the same shoulder, he too has avoided the sort of damage that kept him sidelined for three months last season.

Saliba was back in the side against City and again against Port Vale midweek while Madueke’s knee injury is a medial ligament rather than an anterior, with the former Chelsea winger looking at up to two months out of action.

As Cristhian Mosquera, Martin Zubimendi and Madueke in particular have demonstrated, Arsenal now have the depth to navigate through those sort of short-to-mid-term problems, still undefeated this season.

But the frequency in which their fans are left sweating profusely over the fitness of their leading men is a worry.

Injuries keep coming for Mikel Arteta (Picture: Getty Images)

Arsenal have well-documented problems getting themselves over the finishing line but the absences Saka, Odegaard, Havertz and Gabriel Magalhaes at crucial junctures last season had its own significance in another trophyless season.

Given recent history, there might be the feeling Arsenal have the worst luck in the Premier League. But in reality, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Manchester City and Tottenham are currently dealing with the same number of injuries, if not more, during a period of the season where players are most at risk.

Madueke is out for six to eight weeks (Picture: Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

‘What we are seeing is players come back in for the first few weeks of the new season and in that time, we now usually see a spike in injuries,’ Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, told Metro. ‘That is generally what we will see across the Premier League compared to other portions in the year.

‘We see another spike around Christmas and New Year because there is so much congestion around that time period and again towards the end of the season.’

When injuries start to stack up, inevitably there will be questions over what is causing it. Blame can be directed at the medical staff, overly intensive training sessions or players themselves failing to look after themselves properly.

Last season, Saka, Havertz, Gabriel and Martinelli were all struck down with hamstring injuries during the second-half of the season in what was a league-wide issue as players and clubs battled through an unforgiving fixture schedule. This time around, Arsenal players have been struck down by a variety of issues, a common problem at this stage of the campaign.

Saliba came off five minutes into the match at Liverpool (Picture: Getty Images)

‘If they were all suffering with a specific type of injury, it would be easier to jump to that conclusion that something is going wrong on the training pitch,’ Smith said. ‘But we also know about these periods of the season where injuries are much more likely.

‘The first couple of weeks of the season is one of them and as we see right now with Arsenal, there are always more injuries occurring in this period than we do throughout the rest of the season. We will see a reduction over the next few weeks where things return to a more normal level.’

Navigating this first ‘injury spike’ of the season is tricky with clubs desperate to hit the ground running with new signings eager to impress immediately.

Daring to rotate and rest members of your squad at this early stage will earn you a severe tongue-lashing from some but for Manchester City and Chelsea, there has been good reason after their Club World Cup exploits.

Chelsea’s win over Paris Saint-Germain in New Jersey came just 34 days before their league opener against Crystal Palace and while City exited the competition early, Pep Guardiola had grave concerns over how it would come back to bite his side later in the season.

Guardiola has expressed fears over his squad staying fit (Picture: Getty Images)

Moises Caicedo and Tijjani Reijnders are the only players from those two clubs to have played every minute this season and while Chelsea and City have suffered injuries elsewhere, squad rotation even in the opening weeks of the season could be a long-term solution.

‘Seeing these spikes, it suggests there is potential for teams to leverage more rotation in those first couple of weeks of the season to potentially offset some of that,’ Smith said. ‘If we know going into the season this is a period where there is a higher risk of potential injuries, potentially we should be using more rotations game to game in that period.

‘I know everyone wants to get off to get off to the perfect start and get wins under their belts but they also want to keep their best players out there and available.’

So what can Arsenal do? ‘Without having access to all the information as to how all those players are responding day to day, it is impossible to say if there are things they can do to help the situation,’ Smith said.

‘But sitting on the side we sit on in regards to the use of data and what we see from it, often times we can learn things. The question is not whether there is anything Arsenal could have done to prevent those issues, but how they can learn from them using the information they have to leverage things in the future and prevent other injuries in the future.’

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