“We are suffering a lot, but we must adapt,” said Unai Emery. “One always foresees problems, but not in this quantity – all these injuries and suspensions.”
The Spaniard would add that Valencia’s ever-increasing list of absentees “cannot be an excuse” for their upcoming game with Deportivo La Coruña. With first-choice right and left-backs Miguel and Emiliano Moretti unavailable and Raul Albiol – one of the head coach’s four captains – banned, it would certainly have been the easier option.
But Emery is no stranger to making ends meet. He moved regular centre-half Alexis to right-back, welcomed the return of club legend Carlos Marchena from injury to pair him with reserve central defender Maduro, and gave Asier del Horno just his fifth of six La Liga starts that season. Los Che ground out a 1-1 draw away at a direct rival for European qualification.
A decade on, little has changed. A squad that has never before been stretched to its physical limits has felt the quite literal strain, yet Emery knows it only exacerbates the situation to complain. Most other managers would point to a bare cupboard and insist there is nothing they can do; the Spaniard has rummaged in the back, thrown some ingredients together and still has the club chasing a Champions League return through two realistic routes.
The club, the players, the league and the circumstances might all be different, but the manager remains steadfast in his quest for existing solutions over tired excuses.
The victory over Chelsea saw Arsenal field their 14th different defensive combination in 23 Premier League games. It was both the first and last time that Hector Bellerin, Sokratis, Laurent Koscielny and Sead Kolasinac started alongside each other in a Premier League game this campaign. Bellerin’s season-ending injury almost guarantees another new-look backline against Arsenal in the FA Cup and Cardiff next midweek.
Yet even as Bellerin joined Danny Welbeck and Rob Holding on the sidelines, Emery was unmoved. He would have been forgiven for recounting his steps and wondering whether he had stepped under a ladder and broken a nearby glass window while crossing a black cat, but he refuses to be a hostage to misfortune.
That all three players were on their Emery way, each embracing and thriving in the new pressing, passing style before being stopped so abruptly in their tracks, only adds insult to the injuries.
Welbeck was scoring or assisting at a rate of one every 100.6 minutes before his setback, and was an incredibly useful option. Holding had established himself as the club’s best centre-half. Bellerin was finally in a system tailored to suit him as opposed to the other way around. Any squad would struggle with such key players ruled out simultaneously.
But Emery is so shackled by his club’s mismanagement and subsequent lack of funds that he was willing to pitch Stephan Lichtsteiner as a viable replacement behind Ainsley Maitland-Niles when asked how he would cope.
“We have the players,” said the Spaniard, before delivering the most unexpected punchline of the year so far. “I don’t forget Jenkinson who has played some matches and can be used if we need him.”
Aside from the similarly injured Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jenkinson’s is perhaps the only box yet to be ticked in this game of Arsenal defensive crisis bingo. The Gunners have had more different starters at left-back than any club (5), and only Manchester United (8) have used more players at centre-half (7). And three of those were more due to Jose Mourinho protests than any actual selection problems.
Emery’s refusal to lament the hand he has been dealt, and instead try and work out different ways to play it, has masked just how challenging Arsenal’s fitness problems have been. He has been the calm amidst the storm of injuries, an unbalanced squad, upheaval in the boardroom and an incredibly difficult transitional period. Two of the three-man panel that appointed the Spaniard will have already left north London this time next month, but can do so in the knowledge that they made the right choice.
A season that started with Maitland-Niles at left-back on the opening day will likely end with him at right-back on the final weekend. Koscielny was unavailable until December, by which time injuries to Holding, Sokratis and Mustafi meant he was partnered with Lichtsteiner and Granit Xhaka in central defence. Nacho Monreal, Arsenal’s best player last season, has been restricted to just three Premier League starts since the end of September.
Yet the only real talk of crisis has been not of injuries, but of winning just two of their previous six Premier League matches ahead of a momentum-shifting victory over Chelsea. Arsenal are now three points behind fourth place and still in two other competitions despite being in a constant uphill battle. The adaptable Emery deserves more credit.
Matt Stead