Arsenal: The injury excuse has literally vanished

Unai Emery’s management has always been defended due to the injuries he has had to deal with and the restricting impact that has had on his Arsenal selections. Well, now, that has excused has vanished, quite literally.

At present, the best defence that can be offered for Unai Emery his tenure as Arsenal head coach is that he has not had the sample size, both in terms of its breadth and quality, to accurately prove whether he is indeed a capable head coach or not. Essentially, the jury is still out.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Unai Emery out, again

One of the key factors in affecting the sample size in a detrimental manner has been the injuries that Emery has dealt with. While many of his star players have enjoyed a relatively smooth run in regards to potential fitness problems, the positions that have suffered from injuries have been extremely specific ones, meaning that Emery has had his hands tied.

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Most notably, right-back Hector Bellerin missing the majority of Emery’s first season in charge while not having a true left-back on the opposite flank forced Emery into using a back-three-based formation on a regular basis. Add in the lack of genuine wingers, a problem that was made bare when Arsenal offloaded both Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the summer, and it was quite clear that the squad restricted Emery’s options. Much his first season in charge was Emery adapting to the players that he had available.

But in his second season, Emery would be handed the opportunity to play as he saw fit. After another transfer window to sign a true winger, left-back and bolster the midfield, and the eventual return of key players from long-term injuries, the Spaniard would have all the talent at his disposal to truly allow his coaching to take effect.

To illustrate this point, prior to Wednesday’s trip to play to Vitoria SC in the Europa League, Arsenal provided an injury update on their first-team players. In an official statement, the club confirmed that there are currently no injury problems in the squad:

"“There were no injury issues from Saturday’s match against Wolves. Therefore, with Reiss Nelson featuring for the under-23s on Friday, we currently have no first team squad players unavailable due to injury.”"

For Emery, that means over very pertinent and plain thing: there is no longer the excuse of not having the players available to build a competitive and cohesive team. The summer transfer window was widely viewed as an excellent one, especially when it comes to addressing the prior needs of the squad, while the likes of Bellerin, Rob Holding and Kieran Tierney are all back in the first-team fold and available for selection.

Suddenly, then, the last line of defence for Emery and his management is looking rather weak. The sample size to judge his coaching is as good as it is ever going to be. Now, he must deliver on what is a decent squad vastly underperforming.

In professional football, it is extremely rare to have no injuries. Emery will recognise as much. But if he cannot get the team playing well now, he never will. The final excuse has come to its end.