I feel the impact of injuries we have suffered as a team has been hugely understated so far by us fans but also others such as the media.
We could pretty much field a decent team full of players who have suffered mid to long term injuries this season, the number I think is quite unprecedented within the league.
GK - clearly no injury here
RB - Coleman (missed four weeks)
CB - Alcaraz (missing for 3 months)
CB - Stones (missing for 3 months plus)
LB - Oviedo ( missed all season thus far due to injury recovery)
RM - Mirallas (missed six weeks plus)
CM - Gibson (recovering from long term injury..missed 8 weeks or so)
CM - McCarthy (out for 3-4 weeks and potentially injured now)/Barry (injured now for 'weeks rather than months')
LF - Pienaar (missed 4 weeks)
CAM - Barkley (missed 7 weeks)
FW - Kone (missed all season) / Rom has been unfit for six weeks carrying an injury.
Genuinely cant think of a team who has suffered as much or as frequent. Its not just fringe players either, Coleman,Stones,Mirallas,McCarthy and to a lesser extent Pienaar all make us tick as a team.
That team up there imho would be top 10 easily.
In my opinion it shows a) how unlucky we have been and b) that were doing just fine currently in comparison to being able to get a full strength team out.
Others have suffered injuries but only to one player or two. We have suffered significantly more than anyone in the league and consequently our position reflects that.
I fully expect with a bit more luck with injuries (to ourselves or other teams) we will be in or around 4th again. Keep the faith.
COYB