Arsène undoes Forsythe's Anti-Injury Opus...

Arsène has taken the blame for exposing Aaron Ramsey to the hamstring injury that will keep him out of Saturday's clash with Everton. Despite his apparent ineffectivenes while playing on the right, Ramsey has been an instrumental cog in Arsenal's success to date, and his absence might matter more that it would seem to those who doubt him. Ramsey's hamstring injury will knock him out until December (we all know how estimates go around the Emirates).  In fact, this might stand as the first "preventable" injury we've seen in the current campaign, thanks in large part to the efforts of Shad Forsythe. First, let's get to Arsène's confession of culpability...

With that out of the way, let's take a closer look at Forsythe's impact. According to ArsenalReport, between the current period (1 July to today) and the same period last season, here's what's happened to our injury totals:

• Number of injuries have gone down to half.
• Only lost a third of the number of days we did last year.
• Avg days out per injury improved by a third.
• Much fewer injuries lasting more than a week.

Now, of course, you might quip about the absence of Abou accounting for all of that, but the reality is that thhere has been massive improvement. Among the injuries we have seen, fewer have been from the kind of red-lining or muscular fatigue. Injuries like Welbeck (knee), Rosický, (knee) and Wilshere (ankle) are more attributable to almost-impossible-to-prevent matchday contact; Ramsey's is perhaps the first serious "preventable" injury to afflict the squad, one that comes from overuse, be it from playing for Wales or for Arsenal. As Arsène himself admits, Ramsey should have been rested at some point.

Here's hoping then that Forsythe can work some of the magic he's worked already by restoring Ramsey to match-fitness earlier than we've come to expect in such situations...