I think it the casue of our ongoing injuries “crisis” is a combination of the issues mentioned above.

Whenever this topic comes up I can’t help but think about the renowned AC Milan fitness centre:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Welcome-to-Milanello-Ac-Milans-groundbreaking-medical-centre

AC Milan seem to be able to keep their players going practically forever (although Serie A is in my opinion slower than the EPL). Maldini, Pirlo, even Baresi in the good old days!

Although we are leaders in most football related matters I am sure Arsenal could learn a thing or two from Milanello – perhaps Wenger and the medical staff should pay a long visit this summer whilst the World Cup is underway?

I love Kenny and enjoy his summarizing and punditry on ATVO. However, he’s just way off base on this diet thing. I’m leaning towards him suggesting this in a tongue and cheek manner as part of the comedy he provided during Saturday’s match commentary on ATVO.

I thoroughly enjoyed his commentary and remember one comical moment when Dan Roebuck suggested that Capello was in the stadium watching Theo Walcott. It was during an Arsenal attack – and Sansom matter of factly commented that the Sunderland defender is the one who should be watching Walcott not Capello.

He also revealed why his nickname was ‘White shorts Sansom’ and that’s because he couldn’t be found dead tackling anything hence his shorts always remained white.

Malicious tackling most definitely plays a role in skewing our injury numbers. I remember when we played Stoke on 23rd of January – Robert Huth blatently got away with a studs up tackle that was ridiculously high on Carlos Vela, and if the young Mexican hadn’t attempted to jump out, he’d probably had broken his knee or something.

The ref didn’t even bat an eyelid and Huth – who was playing right back in that game – got away with murder. Vela was out with an injured knee a few days later. The only reason I can think Huth did this is because it was the team’s strategy to stop Vela from using his trickery and pace against a neanderthal right back.

Saying that, I wonder how teams used to survive in the 60s, 70s and 80s with just 15 or 16 players in the squad. Clearly, most played through the pain barrier – but the substitutes bench must have been empty most of the time.

Rotational fouling particularly on Cesc in recent times has become an art form. I agree with you that referees blatently turn a blind eye and yet are trigger happy to dish out cards our way.

What is more amazing is that Arsenal is on the top of the fair play league table and if I’m correct, we’ve now gone close to 70 games without receiving a red card. We are also statistically the most fouled team in the league.

The disproportionate amount of bookings we sometimes get in relation to the fouls committed are ridiculous. Just today, a retired referee thought he’d fill his pathetic column in one of the worst newspapers by having a go at Wenger. This is the same referee that committed the cardinal sin at the last world cup and didn’t realise he had given a player a second yellow card and let him play on.

He eventually gave the player a 3rd yellow card and earned the nickname 3 Cards Poll (his name is Graham Poll). I’m even surprised he has the audacity

Magneto.

We occasionally get ‘up the noses and in the faces of opponents’ – and the end result is that we’re charge by the FA for violent conduct…LOL! Last time Nasri and Song gave Hull City a taste of their own medicine – Arsenal got fined £25,000 for failing to control their players.

Gennie – more power to you for bringing up the referees angle. I hadn’t even thought of that. That alone is material enough for a specific post on its own.

I agree with the notion that there’s an urban legend that has been engrained in the psyche of the establishment that the way to teach ‘these softies’ how to play football is hard tackling.

Firstly, we should all accept that tackling, and the beautiful tackle at that, is part and parcel of the game. We thrive on it and we’ve seen our players like Gallas, Campbell and Rosicky execute world class tackles that remind you of how the game is beautiful.

This is however very different from the malicious “Let’s take them out” tackle. Arsenal are always subject to this thuggery disguised as good ole fashoned grit and steel’ – and it’s pretty much violence sanctioned in the name of association football.

I don’t recall where I read this – but apparently, FIFA had a recent ruling that referees should protect technically gifted players (and Arsenal do have them) from the mindless thuggery and reckless tackling that could end their careers.

I heard Talk sport radio a week or so ago suggesting that referees should protect Wayne Rooney for this reason. If you don’t know Talk Sport radio better known as Talk Shite radio, then you’ll understand how ironic it is for them to suggest this since Wayne Rooney is English.

This is the same station that is openly xenophobic towards Wenger and Arsenal and would rather the soft and brittle glove wearing foreigners at Arsenal get on with it and deal with the tackling in the game and stop whinging like boys.

If memory serves me right the CL final was the last time a full squad was available for selection. A strange coincidence perhaps? Even that season we couldn’t field the same LB for 2 consecutive games.

This has really been going on throughout the Wenger era. We went to Everton in 2002 with 10 regulars missing.

AW has said it is a mystery,

Arsenal have always been renowned for having the best sporting medical facilities right back to the 1930s. Our ‘enery Cooper was treated there & I believe Frankie Dettori(?) amongst many others.

It is a strange phenomenon, because we won the double in 70/71 with, I think, 16 players, 2 of whom played 1 or 2 games at most. That was about 70 games in much harsher conditions than now.

It seems to be a combination of things. The players are much more like athletes now & athletes are notoriously temperamental fitness wise. Amazingly could there be something in Sansom’s theory? He had a good fitness record but his habits meant that when he went downhill he went very fast. Are they over-trained or over restricted with diets? Our players normally last the game better than almost any opposition but then you hear later that 2 or 3 of then are out for a few weeks. It is the pulls & hamstrings that seem so much more prevalent.

Our style of play certainly accounts for attracting kicks, intentional or not, from the opposition. We have 2 examples of that with Nasri & Eboue limping quite badly by the end of the game. That I feel is part & parcel, we are not blameless in that respect. Sometimes it is blatantly deliberate, like the Brum guy on Walcott. As Gennie says, that is the sort of thing where the refs are letting the more talented players down.

What it has done is allow a large number of players to get games, so that they have the experience at an early age to make to not radically reduce the quality of our team. Saturday was a good example.

The biggest problem with the injuries has been the inability to get a settled side, however if we had a full compliment available each week then there would be an awful lot of talent being aggrieved at not getting games?

Strange that so many still say we have a “thin” squad!

According to the iZombies, “Arsenal don’t like it up ‘em”. I wonder which teams – and individual players – do “like it up ‘em”? (‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that!’ as they would say in Seinfeld).

Wenger is surely doing his job properly, We are still in the race albeit 6points adrift, Manu and chelsea would have been far behind if they had suffered injuries to their key players (Rooney/Drogba) so we should commend him for keeping us above water inspite of everything we have undergone this season. We surely have depth in the squad. Infact the team has done pretty well, I can’t remember the last time we played the same team twice in consecutive matches. I dream of the day we will have all players fit, Wenger will have a headache to choose the lineup, but a wonderful headache to have all the same.