For quite some time, Arsenal and the fans have bemoaned the club’s injury record.
Long term injuries to key players have been considered as something holding us back, starving us of our finest talents for the very biggest games of the season. Right now, even after an international break, we remain relatively injury free.
That means there are no excuses for out title contenders, despite their current woes.
The last two weeks saw Manchester City lose key men Sergio Agüero and David Silva, who were substituted early in games for Argentina and Spain respectively. Now the shoe is on the other foot, Wenger doesn’t think injuries suffered in internationals should have any bearing on results.
“You can never speculate on that,” Wenger said in Thursday’s press conference.
The Premier League will be decided by results, and the Arsenal boss feels his players have enough to get good results as long as they play well.
“You can fight for the championship if you turn up with the performances in every single game, and I believe that we’ve just come out of a very strong performance. What is at stake is for us to again show the same quality in our performance.
“That means show that you can focus in every single game and turn up with the same commitment in every single game. That’s what is at stake for us.”
Of course we have to apply ourselves the same regardless of who is available, and you can never say for certain that injuries will influence the results but Wenger’s wrong to say it would be total speculation if one suggested Arsenal benefit from the injuries suffered to the Manchester City men.
Both Sergio Agüero and David Silva are key players. Manchester City can certainly lose games with them, but they’re more likely to lose without them and those negative results for City would give Arsenal a boost in the title race.
Nothing can be said for certain, but it’s not a wild stretch to say Arsenal have been badly affected by injuries before but, this time around, the casualties of the international break give the Gunners a slight boost in the coming weeks.