Arsenal have commissioned a physiotherapist from outside their medical staff to review a run of injury problems that threaten to derail the club’s Premier League title push.
Spanish physio Joaquín Acedo has been brought in to lead the investigation. It is understood that Acedo is a friend of Mikel Arteta, the manager, and has been a regular presence around the squad in recent months.
There is tension at the club caused by the number of times the team has been without key players over the course of the season. Of Arsenal’s 22 outfielders, only Martín Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly have avoided injury this season while key players, Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka, have had considerable spells on the sideline.
Arteta has a strong staff overseeing the complex business of medical provision and conditioning for his squad. The club recruited lead doctor Zafar Iqbal from Crystal Palace in February 2024, an experienced sports medicine practitioner.
Arteta is close to Tom Allen, the club’s head of sport science and performance, who has published extensive original research on the growing physical demands for Premier League players to cover ever greater distances in matches.
Acedo posted on his Instagram feed in September that he was at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground on a “new project” to “continue improving and achieve great things with this club”. “Difficult but exciting”, he added.
Telegraph Sport understands he was at the club the previous season on Arteta’s recommendation. Earlier posts on Acedo’s feed make clear that Acedo, who has a physiotherapy practice in Cádiz, has a longstanding friendship with Arteta.
On the other side of the argument, the club has a policy of carrying out reviews every few months to look at how they screen players for potential injuries or manage players’ rest. It is a practice that Arteta has spoken about in the past.
Arteta’s game plans ask a lot of his players and the intensity of training sessions is an open secret.
While the injury picture changes weekly, there have been injuries this season that have deprived the club of key players including Mikel Merino, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori, who has twice aggravated injuries in pre-match warm-ups this season.
Once again there are concerns about player availability for another critical Premier League game, at home to Fulham on Saturday, where Arsenal could go six points clear of Manchester City, who will have played two fewer matches. Havertz and Timber have been ruled out with Ødegaard a doubt.
Earlier this year, Arteta said it was important to look at the different kinds of injuries. “Some of them have been long-term and acute injuries, especially with some of the key players who give you a lot of days out. It’s something that we are constantly looking at … we have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing. That creates a lot of stress and then more injuries. We are on it [as an issue] and I’m really happy with what we are doing in terms of the medical stuff and everything that we are trying to do together.”
Arteta has also said that the club have looked at how players warm up for games so that they are not injured inadvertently.
Injuries could cost Arsenal the title
When Arsenal spent around £270m on new players last summer, their primary aim was to build a squad deep enough to handle the injuries that inevitably occur over the course of a long and draining campaign. Their 2024-25 season had been derailed by knocks to key men and Arsenal’s decision-makers were determined to ensure that such a scenario would not be repeated.
The strategy in the transfer window was therefore to build the depth of the squad, rather than to significantly improve Mikel Arteta’s starting line-up. Of the eight players who joined the club, only Martin Zubimendi was regarded internally as a guaranteed starter from day one.
As a result of this investment, Arsenal began the campaign with perhaps the strongest squad in the Premier League. When everyone is available, Arteta has at least two high-quality players for each position.
As the season has progressed, though, this strength in depth has been tested to the extreme by repeated physical issues affecting important players – often in positional clusters. Only Martin Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly have avoided injury this season of Arsenal’s 22 outfielders.
In total, Arsenal players have missed a combined 262 matches for club and country this campaign, according to Transfermarkt data. It has been a particular problem in the attacking positions with key figures Ødegaard, Havertz and Saka. Attacking midfielder Mikel Merino, who often excels as a striker, has also been absent for months after breaking his foot.
A comparison with Manchester City, Arsenal’s title rivals, illustrates the problem. Pep Guardiola’s side have also suffered injuries, of course, with important defenders John Stones and Joško Gvardiol both struggling this season, but overall they have fared better than Arsenal in this regard: compared to Arsenal’s combined 262 missed matches, City players have missed a total of 212 matches for club and country this season.
Comparisons can be made between specific players. Havertz, Arsenal’s best striker, has missed 37 games this season. Erling Haaland, City’s best striker, has missed only one.
Ødegaard, the Arsenal captain and playmaker, has missed 24 matches through injury. Bernardo Silva, the City captain and playmaker, has missed one.
Saka, Arsenal’s star winger, has missed 10 matches in 2026. Antoine Semenyo, City’s star winger, has missed none.
Not all of Arsenal’s injuries have been muscular, with some of them a result of bad luck or opposition tackles. Ødegaard, for example, had a run of contact injuries.
But the fact remains that Arsenal have appeared jaded and under-strength for much of the past few weeks, with the accumulation of these various injuries taking their toll. City, by contrast, appear to have been growing stronger as the campaign has reached its decisive weeks. If Arsenal do go on to finish second to City in the Premier League title race, the difference in physical condition will undoubtedly be a major reason why.