Maybe there's a reason our defenders (especially the wide ones) end up being crocks. Arteta's preferred style of play requires them to sprint up the field to be involved with our setup play (overlaps, etc) and then sprint back to defend... Over and over and over again. That takes a toll..

Just a thought

    USArsenal everybody works hard in this system. It’s not an easy way to play. That’s why most teams can’t keep up with us.

        Claudius Yes, you're right. But its also why we end up getting injuries (last season's anomaly aside, where our core players somehow managed to avoid injury).

          Claudius working this hard is going to lead to inevitable burn out though. Its why he needs to rotate more.

            Agree with all of this. Liverpool went through the same. This is expected.

              goon

              So we try to cover injury prone full backs by signing an injury prone full back? Make it make sense

                I guess they assessed Caliafori's injury as a freak accident. Whether that's right or not I have no idea.

                Burnwinter even worse than it being a snooze fest is that it’s the third international break just 11 rounds into the league. I think it partly explains why all the teams look so bad. Managers barely have time with their players. Every few weeks they’re gone for ten days to play Nations League

                    Claudius

                    The constant thresher of international fixtures is bloody stupid. We literally just had the Euros, and that's why all our England players are half broken a quarter of the way through the league season.

                    And if it's not that it's sticking the World Cup in Qatar in the middle of the season.

                    I am not against international football, but the standard's low compared to the Prem and there's just too much of it. The qualifying matches should be more focused on the year prior to the major tournaments (AFCON, Euros, Copa America, WC etc), not just going on all the fucking time without stopping.