Can Arsenal beat Manchester United without Adebayor and van Persie?

Do Arsenal stand a chance without their first-choice strikeforce?

Arsene Wenger was adamant last season that he had a big enough squad to challenge for the title only for it to be reported as a “crisis” and used as an excuse by the Arsenal boss when they picked up a few injuries in the final months of the season. Again this summer, Wenger insisted he had enough depth but ahead of their biggest game of the season so far they have a legitimate crisis with Robin van Persie suspended, Emmanuel Adebayor injured and Eduardo still out. Will they be able to get a result without the trio?

Arsenal without Adebayor and van Persie

» There has only been one league match this season that Adebayor hasn’t started - the away game against West Ham - and on that occasion he got them out of jail when he came on by creating the opener and scoring the second.

» As well as being the Gunners’ overall top-scorer with nine goals, Adebayor has made six league assists this season, a total that only Manchester United’s Dimitar Berbatov can match.

» It’s been over a year since Adebayor last missed a league game for Arsenal. The last two he missed were the first two games of last season - a 2-1 win against Fulham and a 1-1 draw at Blackburn. While Arsenal took points in both games, it’s worth noting that van Persie scored in both.

» Van Persie appeared in fifteen league games last season. Arsenal’s record with van Persie of 2.2 points a game was marginally better than their average of 2.17 without him, although they lost two of three league games against Big Four clubs with van Persie playing, compared to none of the three that he missed.

Posted: November 7th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment