Five times injuries changed Premier League title races

Manchester City look set to be without Rodri for the remainder of the season after arguably the club’s most influential footballer sustained a serious knee injury.

It’s been 19 months since Pep Guardiola’s side last lost a Premier League game with Rodri in the team, though three of the four fixtures he missed last season ended in defeat. How will the Citizens cope in his absence? And could it prove decisive in the title race?

Five times injuries swayed the Premier League title race

Roy Keane (1997/98)

Manchester United were under new threat during the 1997/98 season as the defending champions faced competition from an improving Arsenal. The North Londoners were emerging as a force under Arsene Wenger and just a point separated the sides when Manchester United captain Keane was ruled out for the campaign in late September.

An ACL injury at Elland Road curtailed the campaign of the all-action Irishman, arguably the most influential footballer in the Premier League at that time. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side initially coped well without the midfielder and entered March with a 12-point lead over Arsenal. The Gunners, however, had three games in hand and clawed back the deficit with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford the turning point in the title race.

Consecutive draws at home to Liverpool and Newcastle then saw Manchester United overhauled, missing out on the title by a single point at the season’s end. It’s difficult to imagine such slip-ups had the unrelenting Keane been present.

The following season, Keane captained the Red Devils to a Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble.

Eduardo (2007/08)

Arsenal were riding a wave of momentum ahead of a February trip to face Birmingham City, as an exciting post-Invincibles side led the Premier League table. The Gunners had lost just one of their opening 26 games to open up a five-point lead, though one fateful fixture – and tackle – at St Andrew’s derailed their season.

Martin Taylor’s infamous challenge saw Eduardo suffer a horrific broken leg, leaving his Arsenal teammates visibly distressed on the pitch.

“The Arsenal players here are in some distress, I’m told the injury is so disturbing we cannot show pictures of it – rarely have I seen such collective anguish on the faces of football players,” Jonathan Pearce said on the BBC commentary at the time.

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Eduardo had made a strong start at Arsenal with 12 goals in 22 starts, though it was the nature of the injury that derailed an inexperienced squad.

“I think this guy should never play football again, what is he doing on a football pitch?” Wenger said emotively in the aftermath.

“I feel that the idea that has gone around a long time is that to stop Arsenal – you have to kick Arsenal, I knew that was coming for a long time now. People will say he is not the type of guy who does that. But it is like a guy who kills only once in his life. There is still a dead person.”

A late Birmingham equaliser saw Arsenal drop points in the game, before drawing their next three games and losing to Chelsea to implode in the title race. A season of such promise unravelled rapidly.

Fernando Torres (2008/09)

Liverpool’s hopes of ending their long wait for Premier League success were pinned on Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard in the late noughties. The duo’s terrific tandem had fired the Reds into contention, with the 2007/08 campaign seeing the duo combine for 54 goals and 23 assists.

Rafael Benitez’s side came agonisingly close to ending their title drought the following season, losing just twice in the Premier League to push Manchester United all the way. Often forgotten, however, is how little Liverpool could call on their star names with Torres and Gerrard starting just 14 games together as each struggled with injuries.

Together, the two were at the centre of destructive performances against Manchester United and Real Madrid, leaving a sense of what might have been.

Torres started just 24 league games, scoring 14 goals, as Liverpool finished four points off the champions.

Iconic Duos: Gerrard and Torres – Liverpool’s lethal pairing

Virgil van Dijk (2020/21)

Liverpool entered the 2020/21 campaign as Premier League champions after ending a 30-year wait for a top-flight title the previous season, having earned the second-highest points total in English football history (99).

A heavy defeat at Aston Villa aside, the Reds opened up their defence impressively with nine points from four games before disaster struck at Everton.

Jordan Pickford’s knee-high challenge on Virgil van Dijk saw the Dutch defender sustain an ACL injury, leaving Liverpool without the pillar on which their title success was built. Liverpool coped without Van Dijk initially and topped the Premier League table at Christmas, though their season imploded in the new year.

Burnley stunned the Reds to end their 68-game unbeaten home run in the Premier League, a result that kickstarted a run of six straight home losses. Jurgen Klopp’s team lost six times in seven games between February 3rd and March 7th, with only a late-season revival salvaging Champions League qualification.

William Saliba (2022/23)

William Saliba’s return from a loan spell at Marseille helped turn Arsenal into contenders in 2022/23, as the Frenchman’s partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes provided the foundation for a title challenge.

The Gunners built an impressive lead over Manchester City, though their season stalled after Saliba sustained a back injury against Sporting Lisbon in March. Ruled out for the final 11 games of the run-in, Arsenal struggled defensively in his absence and kept just two clean sheets, blowing an eight-point lead at the top.

A heavy 4-1 defeat at Manchester City all but ended their title dream, with the North Londoners making unwanted history. Their 248 days at the top of the table during the season was the most without finishing first in English top-flight history.

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