Chamakh - Our Most "Played" Player

How long does an athlete last ?

For example, how much a young player is exposed and how well the progression to the top level is managed by his manager can affect it in significant ways. In our case, I'm sure Arsene more than anyone else -- "knows."

Sometimes I do get a little worried/.

Take someone like Cesc Fabregas. It doesn't take a statistician to know that he's probably outplayed many others his age with his appearances for Arsenal and Spain.

I dug up some numbers and created a proxy list. It pits the number of appearances ( after playing senior club football in all competitions) against the number of seasons played by the player till date.






Chamakh tops the list with 40 games a season. Not surprising given his time in french football and his role at Bordeaux.

"After a Premier League match, I walk off with my body aching, with scratch marks, stiff muscles. Three days later, we go again."

  Cesc Fabregas, worryingly is at next at 38 games a season. Given that all his football has been in the premier league and internationally with spain -- presumably both require a lot out of you as an athlete -- it says something about his recent fitness issues.

"Story of my life"

He's as much a part of the rest of team growing up as Arsene or anyone else could be and people who slag him off should f*ck off.  I really hope Arsene and the medical team address this sensibly in the long term and not do something dumb. Here's what Cesc said in a recent interview.

'We are working on it, looking at my hips because they are always very tight. We have to work on it but also understand I am 23 years old and I've played many, many games.

'Soon I will play my 200th Premier League game, as well as nearly 60 for the national team and 60 in the Champions League. So that's a lot of games for my age and I have to take care of myself.'

May he heal in peace.

One thing I must admit is that I'm enjoying watching the rest of the squad take some f*cking responsibility for a change.