Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta have often complained about injury problems this season, but title rivals Manchester City and Arsenal are actually better off than five Premier League clubs so far, new data shows.
City, who are bidding for an unprecedented fifth successive Premier League title, have fallen five points behind leaders Liverpool after a relatively slow start, while Arsenal are nine points off the top.
The Premier League champions are without Ballon d'Or winner Rodri, who is out for the season with a knee injury, while Martin Odegaard will be absent from Arsenal for around two months due to an ankle injury.
Guardiola claimed City's current injury crisis is the worst he has faced during his managerial career and claimed his team were 'in trouble' in October.
Meanwhile, Arteta lamented the 'nightmare' of Arsenal's injury following the Gunners' hard-fought 1-1 draw with Chelsea earlier this month.
And yet, while the two sides have undoubtedly been hit by injury woes, data shows that City and Arsenal are both outside the top five when it comes to teams hit by availability issues.
According to Premier Injuries, which has tracked how clubs have been affected by the total number of injuries causing players to miss at least one match this season, Tottenham have been plagued more than any other team as of November 13.
Ange Postecoglou has been without thirteen players for at least one match this season, including captain Son Heung-min, Micky van de Ven, Dominic Solanke and Richarlison.
Closely followed by Spurs are Brighton and Ipswich, who have each been without a dozen players for one or more games, while Aston Villa and Crystal Palace come in second with 11 players.
Although five teams are higher in the table than them, City and Arsenal – who follow with ten players missing at least one match – will feel their complaints are justified, as top players Liverpool have suffered just seven within the same benchmark.
According to the website, City are currently without Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Matheus Nunes, Manuel Akanji, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and Nathan Ake.
Meanwhile, Arsenal's injury list is eight-man strong, with the likes of Ben White, Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Riccardo Calafiori, Leandro Trossard and Kieran Tierney currently listed as unavailable.
The lowest club on the table is West Ham, who have only lost two players so far despite a difficult start to the season under Julen Lopetegui.
Manchester United, who topped the table last season with a total of 45 players missed through injury under Erik ten Hag, have only lost seven so far ahead of Ruben Amorim's first game in charge of the club.
The Portuguese manager was given a boost upon his arrival at Old Trafford as defenders Luke Shaw and Leny Yoro trained in his first session at Carrington after both being injured since the start of the season.
During the session, Amorim looked to select his strongest available team against a young opponent.
Amorim used a 3-4-3 formation for the majority of his 231 games in charge of Sporting and it appears he is keen to stick with that system.
His first test will be a trip to Portman Road to play Ipswich Town on Sunday when the Premier League returns after the final international break of the calendar year.
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