Injury-hit years of Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby

2005-2006

On 12th January 2006 Diaby signed for Arsenal for around £2 million, ending speculation about a move to Chelsea. He took the number 2 shirt. Diaby was seen as a replacement for Patrick Vieira, who had been the heart of Arsenal’s midfield. Abou Diaby made his Arsenal debut in the 1-0 defeat to Everton on 21st January 2006. Some time later he scored his first goal for the Gunners against Aston Villa after coming on as a substitute. Shortly afterwards, Diaby suffered a serious ankle injury in the match against Sunderland, which kept him out for eight months.

2006-2007

The injury did not make Diaby give up, and on 9th January 2007 he returned as a substitute in the Carling Cup quarter-final against Liverpool, which Arsenal won 6-3. In the final in Cardiff, Diaby caught John Terry with a kick to the jaw, and the Chelsea captain lay unconscious for several minutes.

2007-2008

He started the season in the starting eleven. Wenger played Diaby on the left flank to work on his left foot, and the midfielder made a good impression against Derby County after replacing the injured Tomas Rosicky. On 12th December 2007 Diaby scored his first Champions League goal, against Steaua, in a 2-1 win for the Gunners. On 29th March 2008 he received his first red card for Arsenal, against Bolton, after a late tackle on Gretar Steinsson.

2008-2009

After Mathieu Flamini left for Milan, Abou Diaby had to compete with Denilson and Alex Song for the starting place alongside Fabregas in midfield, but the Frenchman picked up an injury and missed several games. He returned against Everton, and just 6 minutes after coming on he set up Walcott to make it 3-1.

2009-2010

This was Diaby’s best season at Arsenal. He became a key player and scored 7 goals in all competitions for the Gunners.

After that, however, the midfielder suffered a string of injuries that badly affected the rest of his career. From 2010 to 2015 Diaby made only 32 Premier League appearances for Arsenal. First came an ankle injury, then a calf strain. The most damaging was in 2013, when a cruciate ligament injury to his knee kept him out for more than a year.

By 2016 Abou Diaby was at Marseille, but his old injuries were still following him. He took part in just 2 Ligue 1 matches that season.

The numbers behind the Arsenal years

Diaby arrived at Arsenal from AJ Auxerre, where he had played since 2004. The ankle injury in his first spring in London came on 1 May 2006, when a tackle by Sunderland defender Dan Smith left him with a fracture. It set the pattern for the following decade.

Across nine and a half years at the club Diaby made 124 Premier League appearances and scored 14 league goals. In all competitions he played 180 matches for Arsenal and scored 19 goals. He did not win a trophy with the Gunners; the closest he came was the 2007 League Cup final in Cardiff, which Arsenal lost to Chelsea. Arsenal released him on 10 June 2015, and he joined Marseille the following month.

International career and retirement

Before his senior career took off, Diaby was part of the France side that won the 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. At senior level he won 16 caps for France and scored once, against Finland in a 2014 World Cup qualifier on 7 September 2012. He started all three of France’s group matches at the 2010 World Cup, against Uruguay, Mexico and South Africa. Injury, however, cost him a place at Euro 2012, and he never played at a European Championship.

The time at Marseille brought little relief from the injuries that had followed him from London. On 25 February 2019 Diaby announced his retirement from football at the age of 32, closing a career in which his talent had rarely been allowed to show for a full season.