Once again our season has been blighted by injuries; almost every player has been out of the side for chunks of time but whose injury has had the most influence?
I would say without doubt it is Cazorla.
We all love our little Spanish genius but it is not just his smile we have missed it is also his ability. Just watch the video below
When Mr Wenger started the season with Santi alongside Coquelin as our defensive shield my (and many others) reaction was bewilderment – how could this attacking midget act as DM? He answered us by playing his exuberant shimmy-shammy skills closer to his own gaol and setting up the attacking play from deeper. He was a revelation and we looked as though the title was ours for the taking.
With Santi and Cazorla in tandem we gained 23 points from 11 games, without them 36 from 22 – a potential loss of 10 points. Our goal ratio has also plummeted.
Perhaps we were not as tight at the back, though the goals against since his injury may tell a different story.
In my opinion, the midfield of Ramsey, Cazorla and Coquelin remains our best trio (though Elneny looks the nuts). Had all three played the full season we would be Champions, wouldn’t we?
written by Big Raddy
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Hooray for Erik
I can stop scribbling a post 🙂
Interesting question. I have really enjoyed the apparently more defensively secure pairing of Coq and The Egyptian, believing a solid midfield duo could liberate the good players in front 🙂
However, you do have some good stats to support your case, and there’s no doubt Santi is a great player who makes things tick, and of course the seemingly odd choice of Aaron to his right arguably saw us play our most effective, and entertaining, football (prior to arrival of Iwobi).
Oh and…
You end by saying “Had all three played the full season we would be Champions, wouldn’t we?”
Such a shame we didn’t collar Elneny in the summer.
Excellent, BR. You’re like a machine. 🙂
Yep, Santi biggest miss, closely followed by Coquelin.
Losing both in successive League games at the end of November, affected both our defensive stability and the attacking flow generated by Santi’s close control and two-footed ability to thread the ball forwards.
We would have won it by a mile if they’d both stayed fit. 😆
“The secret to the Foxes’ success is keeping a fit and healthy squad. Jamie Vardy, 29, has six reported injuries this season (including broken wrist/groin surgery/Achilles injury), and yet the England striker has started every Premier League game.”
It seems that in order to stimulate debate we have to involve the dunderheads who came on yesterday (though to be fair a couple seemed decent chaps).
Aaron on the right allowed him to roam which GIE pointed out is detrimental to the team, but I take the opposite view. I like him popping up in the area despite his poor shooting stats.
Interesting viewpoint, Raddish, until I realised you’re just implying that Santi Cazorla is schizophrenic!
With Santi and Cazorla in tandem we gained 23 points from 11 games, without them 36 from 22.
I suppose if we could find another 10 schizos we could field 22 players in each game and rue the world!! 😀
Seriously tho, well done Erik for keeping up the blog output pretty much on your own! Chapeau.
RA. You tinker. You know just what I meant …
At least it proves you read the post
If anyone suddenly wonders why there are more comments all of a sudden……. well it’s only some knobhead posting pictures, so go back to sleep.
Nice one Raddy
The injury to Santi was a tragedy. If he had stayed fit we would have pissed it. Really, we should have been champions the last ten years in a row, just been a bit unlucky.
Everything is a tragedy to Greeks Raddy. The ancients dedicated there tragic plays to the God Dionysus. He was the one who liked a piss up, so in his honour I’ve been legless 12 years in a row.
Come to think about it, maybe the Gods are punishing us? Tiresias, the first man to get an erection by the thought of wearing women’s clothing, bit like Mourinio but unlike him an enthusiast of attacking football, spotted these two snakes copulating. Seeking an erection, he killed the female snake, so the Gods turned him into a women.
Ten years later Tiresias spots a couple of more snakes doing it, so now bored of Dame Edna Everidges crap drag act and Glen Hoddles secret wardrobe, this time kills the male snake, so is turned into back to a man.
A few years later Zeus and Hera are having an argument on who of the sexes gains the most pleasure, a question that obsessively torments Mourinio, so ask Tiresias his opinion.
The fool has obviously learned nothing and says the man. If he had said the women Zeus would probably have given a mild punishment, rolling a rock for eternity or been turned into Brendan Rodgers, Instead, Hera was furious. It wasn’t the worst punishment imaginable, season ticket to Totnumb or turning into Steve Archibalds underpants, but she did take away his eyesight.
I can only conclude Raddy that the culprit for our misfortune is a pissed up Tranvestite snake murderer.
Dippers v Dortmund.
Who’s your money on, Eddie?
Can the dippers play as well as they did in the 2nd leg as they did in the first?
Then again, WGAF if The Arsenal aren’t in it?
Steve Archibald leaves deep scars.
Terry
I’m still reeling from lovestruck Italian operas only to be smacked in the face with Greek mythology.
BD for me. Hate Sturridge
But then again – Klopp is great fun
Terry. I thought about putting that into the post (“the culprit for our misfortune is a pissed up Tranvestite snake murderer.”) but decided against it.
Love the baby hippo pic but cannot figure out the connection between the 3 pics – is there one?
Sopranos, baby hippo who might sing soprano before his voice breaks and young Tomas playing against old Freddie, summing up the futility of existence.
Simple. 🙂
Looking for connections and a significance to random events is definitely a hippy trait.
7.28
I thought it was that all of them have an “S” 😉
Feckin hippy
Wenger out now before we all die of boredom. Cant you morons see it.
Random. That is one of the many problems with us morons. Must be so frustrating for the intelligentsia like yourself
Great start
Nasty, petty little children still coming in for a hard time on GIE’s post.
Do you remember Sahin who we (apparently) tried to sign on loan from Real Madrid but went instead to L’pool at a cost of two mill for the season yet only played 7 games?
Well, he is on the BD bench tonight.
Yep, he was another we should have signed.
Mind you, if we had brought him to THOF, he would have turned into a world-class midfielder envied by the world.
Liverpool need 3 goals and bring on Joe Allen, The Carmarthen Messi
Dippers on a roll
This is a cracking game
Jeezus is a scouser
Fantastic
Brilliant game of end to end attacking.
unbelievable
Amazing comeback by Liverpool, football is just fantastic isn’t it 😃
purism lives 🙂
Gonna read the post now ………
Have Liverpool just won all of football? Oh no, it’s a Europa League QF!
And people say we are bad for celebrating 4th….
Can’t disagree with any of that Raddy, losing Santi was our biggest loss by far.
I think I’m every other position (except maybe Mesut) we had someone who could cover and may be 80-90% of the first choice, we had no one who could do even 50% of what Santi was doing. You can’t teach football intelligence.
As for the change in the law as regards sending offs…..how the f*** is a ref supposed to decide whether the foul was deliberate or not? They get fooled by the running across the heels trick, and instigating contact that deciding on intent of a foul seems ridiculous.
We are expecting the ref to judge the merits of the tackle was it just mistimed and a genuine attempt to play the ball, or did he know he never would make the ball?
Exile
Your comment one minute too early for you to receive a motning.
I’m moving on to mobile in a few mins. Anyone else having trouble logging in from mobile wordpress?
Try new name
Come in mother ship
Weird, that was with a different name
Bang on Chas
There will be surfing tonight 🙂
What a different name
https://www.buzzfeed.com/beckybarnicoat/cornwall-is-an-utter-shithole#.guX18KZMx5
How do you do that ie change the avatar so quickly?
ha ha ha Fumbucker is a band word 🙄
Shit, nearly locked myself out trying to be clever
Damn, just realised you don’t have an avatar to copy 🙂
later
from mobile, oh unhappy days
I’m going to put a post up today,if no-one minds and nothing else is planned?
Micky, re your comment yesterday morning: not sure about De Boer at Arsenal, but Bergkamp is a must – not sure in which capacity though.
Love pictures, Chas. Just a shame Cornwall is so overcrowded most of the time and full of nutters! 😂
Right, no objections are forthcoming.
Got to go out in a bit, so it’s going up now. Hope that’s ok.
New Post.
It seems there is a New Post