Morning.
By the time you read this, all our players will be injured. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but that’s what’s happening. We go to Dubai to let everyone relax and decompress, and our only centre-forward picks up an injury. Well, to be precise, an injury ‘scare’, but the last thing I wanted was for Kai Havertz’s hamstrings to be afraid of anything.
The news – reported widely now which tells you it’s not nothing – is that he picked up a problem during a training session, the full prognosis is not yet known, and will be determined on the team’s return to England – which I assume will be today as they flew back yesterday. In this season, of all seasons, it’s hard not to worry. Not just because we’ve already suffered plenty in terms of injury, but because I think the decision we made in January about the transfer window comes back into sharp focus if Havertz is sidelined for any period of time.
We all wanted someone to add a bit of quality, but a point I made more than once is that bringing someone else in allows to ease the burden on some players who have played a lot of minutes. Watch Havertz at the end of the Wolves game when the 10 men dug so deep to get a huge win. He was absolutely exhausted. He then played 90 minutes against Man City, and 90 minutes against Newcastle in a game that was over with half an hour to go. Yet we had nobody on the bench to turn to so he didn’t have to play a meaningless 30 minutes.
Do all those things add up to this hamstring injury? Maybe, maybe not. It could have happened anyway. But he, Martinelli, and Bukayo Saka were in the top 7 of minutes played this season for Arsenal and all of them have suffered a hamstring strain of varying degrees of seriousness. It could just be a mad confluence of bad luck, to be hit with the litany of injuries we’ve had this season – from Odegaard to Saka to Jesus and now Martinelli and Havertz – but even if that is the case, you can ask the question about our January business (or lack of) again.
When you make that conscious decision to not add to your squad, you have to accept the responsibility if the consequence of that is players break down because they have too heavy a burden on them. Before the Newcastle game Mikel Arteta spoke about the need to keep everyone fit. Ooops. He also referred to Havertz as a ‘genetic powerhouse‘. Oooooooops. I know the January decision wasn’t his and his alone, it was a collective one involving more than just the manager, but although we’ve got so much right over the last few years, this is one that they got wrong – even if I can understand the difficulty they faced.
So, we’ll wait and see what the full extent of this Havertz injury is. Hopefully it’s not serious, and hopefully it’s one he can see off without missing too many games. After that we can think about how we cope, but the reality is that without him Arteta has a massive headache when it comes to selecting his team. Leandro Trossard up front with a five man midfield behind him (we have midfielders … for now)? A front two of some kind? Repurposing a midfielder to play further forward? What else is there?
Meanwhile, there was more injury news yesterday with regards Takehiro Tomiyasu, and the fact he might require knee surgery on the problem that has kept him out of action for all but 6 minutes of this season. We talked about him a bit on this week’s Arsecast Extra, and I have to say first and foremost I feel really sorry for him (and for us).
He’s not someone who doesn’t take care of himself or lives a poor lifestyle. He’s a great pro, diligent, hard-working, but who has been so unlucky with injury. I’ve said this before, but there’s another universe where we talk about Tomiyasu as a master-stroke in the transfer market. Barely £16m for a top class right-back, left-back and centre-half, who gives you depth in every defensive position. I fully understand conversations about his fitness, I don’t get anyone who questions his quality.
He’s an absolute dream of player, but obviously availability is the best ability, and he hasn’t been able to stay fit consistently. It’s such a shame for him, and for the team, and the fact he wasn’t on the trip to Dubai told you something was going on with him. I know people get frustrated with players who are injured or unfit, which I understand to an extent, but this morning I hope people can put that to one side to feel sympathy for a man who has tried his best but whose body has let him down.
If you’ve ever played football, you’ll know the worst thing about the game is not being able to play it – for whatever reason. The same applies to most professionals as it does to those of us who live for our Sunday League fixtures, and it must be so tough for Tomiyasu to deal with (please don’t come at me with the pay-packet stuff). Thankfully, Arsenal have a squad built to cope with his absence (the polar opposite of our attacking issues, btw), but at the heart of this is a great player whose best years at a big club will likely pass him by. And by the time he’s fit again, the team and the squad may well have moved on – leaving him with little option but to do the same. I wish him all the best with the surgery and the recovery, and I hope he can come through this to pull on our shirt again at some point.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. Have a great Wednesday, especially if you’re crying your heart out somewhere.
