Take the trio of Ramsey, Ozil and Walcott. Two out of three of these guys on the pitch makes a huge difference to us.
Chances are when you've got three guys with that sort of utilisation and those physical attributes you're going to end up with one or two decent stretches when two of them are out. It's not luck, those are the odds.
With the way we don't rotate our first XI and we often take all 90 minutes to close matches out, all three are only good for 70% of PL matches in a season on average I'd say. You might get the odd season where one of them plays through 100%, but he'll be out for half the next.
Think about it this way.
Pick any fixed group of three Arsenal players forward of the back five (current squad only) as the August transfer window closes.
I'll bet you £500 to your £100 that the average utilisation of the three you choose won't be over 2400 minutes in the league.
To win that bet this season you would've had to pick something like Giroud, Cazorla and Arteta - a combination that wouldn't have won you the bet the previous season. Arteta, Giroud, Walcott would've been about the only option in 12-13.
And as we all know, Arteta and Giroud are the players most in need of replacement in our current setup.
Our guys only get to 70% appearances or round about, on average. We either lack first choice depth, or we don't have enough physically robust players who are also unequivocally good enough to play as title-winning first choice in our front six.
When we're also putting responsibility on other guys with perennial injury trouble like Wilshere and Rosicky it's a serious problem.
@Y, I agree, the depth and fatigue issues don't explain our capitulations (I'd make an exception for the City 6-3, which was during one of the most intense fixture runs in the season) but then it's always going to be hard to account for Wenger's tactical and motivational deficits with personnel changes.
