Mikel Arteta worried about the strain being put on Arsenal players
The Gunners still have the FA Cup final to play.
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta admits he is worried that the congested fixture list has put too much strain on his players.
The Gunners face relegation-threatened Watford in their final Premier League game of the season on Sunday, making it 12 matches in 39 days.
Their run to the FA Cup final, where they meet Chelsea on August 1, has seen two additional games slotted in alongside the run of remaining league fixtures after the season restarted following the coronavirus pandemic.
Shkodran Mustafi, too, has been ruled out of the FA Cup final due to a hamstring injury.
Asked if he was worried about there being too much pressure on players recently, Arteta replied: “Yes, I am worried and, for example, Mustafi’s injury is related to it because we had to expose our players.
“But it is what it is. It’s unprecedented times with the Covid, we knew the challenge afterwards and the Premier League has done the best possible way to fix all the fixtures into this calendar year and we are going to move everything back to next season.
“It’s our responsibility to put a plan together where we don’t expose them as much but sometimes it’s inevitable because when you don’t have the numbers they have to keep playing.”
“It will be the same for everybody and then imagine the teams playing in the Champions League so we have to adapt,” he added.
“But again, it is what it is and for a first job it is quite a challenge and, to be fair, I’ve tried to embrace it, give my best, try to help the club and the best players as much as I can and to have more in other moments but at the moment it’s just work, work, review and try to improve.”
