Only Manchester United spent more money than Arsenal on injured players in the first-half of the season, according to research by an insurance broker.
In total, JLT Specialty say Premier League clubs paid out £134.2m to injured players in the first half of the season.
Worryingly, around 10% of that total came from Arsenal alone:
Santi Cazorla is still yet to play a minute for the senior side this season, so his entire wage bill goes into this category.
Others like Aaron Ramsey and Shkodran Mustafi have spent well over a month on the sidelines.
Alexandre Lacazette’s absence is only going to ramp up Arsenal’s total, given his wages as a recent record signing.
United’s position at the top of the list is largely thanks to their massive wage bill.
They have only suffered around half the number of injuries compared to Arsenal.
Here is the full list of number of injuries per team:
West Ham
41 injuries
Arsenal
36 injuries
West Brom
27 injuries
Liverpool
27 injuries
Bournemouth
25 injuries
Crystal Palace
24 injuries
Watford
24 injuries
Chelsea
23 injuries
Everton
22 injuries
Manchester United
20 injuries
Burnley
19 injuries
Leicester City
19 injuries
Tottenham Hotspur
19 injuries
Swansea City
18 injuries
Stoke City
17 injuries
Huddersfield
16 injuries
Manchester City
16 injuries
Southampton
16 injuries
Newcastle United
15 injuries
Brighton
14 injuries
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Year in, year out, Arsenal are always near the top of these sorts of lists as our Injury League has shown for a number of seasons.
The club need to identify the problem and resolve it, or they’ll always struggle to compete with the top teams.