Chelsea v Arsenal v Liverpool v Manchester United – Who Can Handle Injuries Better?
Manchester United might have deserved the English Premier League title that they won in so dominating and convincing a fashion last season but it would be hard to deny that they weren’t aided by the misfortunes that Chelsea had to suffer in terms of regularly losing key players to injuries. No, this is not to suggest that Chelsea would have won the title again but they certainly couldn’t cope with the injury woes that lapped over them.
This season though there has been an alteration to the proceedings. Chelsea haven’t been rocked to an unmanageable degree by the injury lightning so far this season. Chelsea do have enlarged their squad somewhat this season and even their manager Avram Grant says that even when some injuries have cropped up and even when Chelsea lose first team players to the injury devil, they have enough reserve players to carry on the baton. And indeed this is true. Chelsea’s bench does have a number of players who would easily stomp their way into the first XI of any side (even their illustrious rivals Liverpool and Arsenal).
This season the Chelsea bench has come to the rescue. In games where Cech has been unavailable, Italian goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini has deputized him well and in the absence of Didier Drogba, Andriy Shevchenko has come up with good contributions. Even the likes of second choice midfielders such as Steve Sidwell have played a decent role in the team when called up in an emergency.
Grant says that it is this capability of his Chelsea side that will stand them good in the long run. He points out this weekend’s defeats suffered by Liverpool and Arsenal. Arsenal didn’t have Alexandre Hleb and Cecs Fabregas for their trip to Middlesbrough and duly lost 2-1; Liverpool too suffered a 3-1 away defeat to Reading at the weekend. Arsene Wenger relies mainly on the first team players and it is really hard to find one single player at Arsenal who would be able to fill Fabregas’ shoes should he somehow get himself injured and stays away from the game for a long period.
Manchester United haven’t been the same team in style and vigor without midfielder Paul Scholes although it must be admitted that Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney have yet to come up with their best this season for Manchester United.
So will Chelsea’s expensive and large bench strength take them to another Premiership title victory? Or will they again succumb to the curse of the Injury God?
Topics: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United
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Chelsea is by far the most vulnerable especially for such a bloated squad and the money they have spent. When they lose any of Drogba, Lampard or Terry, they struggle.
In fact, I am predicting they won’t make the Top 4 this season because they will lose Drogba, Essien, Mikkel, Kalou
December 11th, 2007 @ 14:42How about Arsenal when they lose Toure and Adebayor? Or if they lose Fabregas out for the season? If they don’t buy in January, their early season efforts will account for nothing. Chelsea will still be far better off since Chelsea will buy in January.
December 11th, 2007 @ 15:52Uniteda cope with injuries the best.they proved that last season and are proving it again this time around with injuries to rooney,saha,hargreaves,scholes,neville etc.united also have the largest squad of players(quality players),except upfront.arsenals squad is thin and is looking increasingly vulnerable.i give them 2 more weeks at the top if not till sunday.subhankar mate keep up the good work with these ” big team” articles.there was really none for some time.
December 11th, 2007 @ 16:04The truth is that all the Big Four suffer and will suffer when their special players are missing. There is a case for saying that each of the Big Four have two special players the loss of which for any significant period would not only dent, but would probably de-rail title ambitions. Consider the loss of the following pairs from the Big Four:
Torres and Gerrard (Liverpool)
Rooney and Ronaldo (Man Utd)
Terry/Essien and Drogba (Chelsea)
Fabregas and Hleb (Arsenal)
By way of example, United have lost two games this season. Guess who weren’t playing. Yep, Rooney and Ronaldo. Arsenal lose in Seville, struggle to draw with Newcastle and lose to Middlesboro. Guess who weren’t playing. Yep, Fabregas and Hleb. Chelsea lost to United when they were without Drogba. And can you imagine Liverpool without both Torres and Gerrard? Doesn’t bear thinking about.
So, its really about each team getting on the prayer mat and asking the Gods to keep their special players out of harm’s way. Special players apart, United and Chelsea are clearly the sides best able to cope with a raft of injuries as they have both shown over the past year.
December 11th, 2007 @ 20:56Well, since my earlier post, Gerrard and Torres have put on superb performances in Liverpool’s 0-4 hammering of Marseille, as if to underline the point about their critical importance to Liverpool.
December 12th, 2007 @ 00:11“Manchester United haven’t been the same team in style and vigor without midfielder Paul Scholes”
I think the above quote is a very silly one from the author.
It does not even seem as if Paul Schole’s absence bothers the team much. We do play fine without him.
It’s Ronaldo/Rooney that is a bit of a concern. At least in Tevez, we have some form of substite for Rooney, but nothing yet for Ronaldo. Perhaps in a season or 2 Nani will be ready.
The point that I’m trying to make is, SAF identified the crucial areas and are working on it.
December 12th, 2007 @ 09:09Well said Karl.
December 12th, 2007 @ 14:22I though this was going to be an actual article comparing their teams but you should have named it Chelseas sqaud depth
December 12th, 2007 @ 15:17Too biased towards Chelsea imo. You write 4 paragrahs on Chelsea’s great squad yet you mention nothing good about Manchester United’s or Liverpools squad, which both are very good, Arsenal for now still rely on youngsters too much, but who cares when they pay the football they do so regularly.
December 13th, 2007 @ 13:23Liverpool have just as good back-up strikers as Chelsea: Voronin-Shevchenko, Kalou-Crouch. In midfield they’re fairly close too: Makelele-Mascherano/Alonso Mikel-Lucas,Sissoko-Sidwell. Chelsea have the better back-up wingers as Malouda is much better than Babel or Pennant. and in defence Chelsea are only slightly superior, both have 2 good left backs, Liverpool have better right backs, but Chelsea have Alex, and even Ben Haim(panic buy) who are better than Hyypia.
Without Scholes we are second in the league and may be first by Monday but you say we are a different team without him, yet without Lampard chelsea struggled much more.
“Chelsea do have enlarged their squad somewhat this season ” Firstly chelsea always had the best squad in the league, yet injuries still stopped them from winning the league(apparently), and compared to their squad last year the only differnce has been that you have more numbers than before, making players unhappy, such as Malouda, and none of the summer signings have been that impressive, although Belleti has helped solve the problem at right back, 2 years later.
And by the way, correct me if I’m wrong but did United not just send out their 2nd team last night(bar 1 player;the captain) and get a draw at the Stadio Olimpico? Fair enough you can talk about Chelsea’s squad being the best in the world, but at least acknowledge the fact that other teams have great squads too.
December 13th, 2007 @ 18:15I agree with Liverpool_fan on this one. “I though this was going to be an actual article comparing their teams but you should have named it Chelseas sqaud depth” Man United have excellent squad depth and last season there was a time when Man United had only 11 fit players (including the sub keeper). This was when they went away to Milan and lost 3-0 in the 2nd leg. Many players played out of positon and Vidic even played with an injury. And yeah how come noone talks about that? Only Chelsea get injuries yeah?
December 14th, 2007 @ 05:31Arsenal : fabregas,hleb,toure
Liverpool : Gerrard,torres,reina
MAN.UTD : rooney,Ronaldo,Scholes
Chelsea : Drogba,Essien,Terry
If they lose these Players they all will fall…but all top4,can`t lose them at the same time…one team is going to have luck…guess who ? i thikn Arsenal
!
GO GUNNERS GO
December 18th, 2007 @ 12:20