In light of recent injuries to key Arsenal players Gabriel Jesus and Thomas Partey, Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s manager, has called for the Premier League to consider expanding team squads beyond the current 25-man limit.

Arteta also suggested increasing the number of allowable substitutes from five to 10 as the league grapples with an increasingly congested fixture schedule.

Mikel Arteta has proposed that the Premier League should consider enlarging their standard 25-man squads or permitting the use of up to 10 substitutes.

This recommendation comes in the wake of injuries to key players Gabriel Jesus and Thomas Partey, both of whom are expected to be out of action for several weeks.

Jesus was injured during Arsenal’s recent Champions League win against Sevilla, while Partey suffered a thigh problem in training prior to the same match.

Arteta detailed the injuries ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League home thrashing of Sheffield United, saying: “[Partey] has got a muscle injury and we expect him to be out for a few weeks.

“We don’t know the extent of it still, he has more tests today. He got that injury in training, with the last kick of the ball. Very unfortunate. Again [on Jesus], the scans show that there is a muscle injury.

“We might miss him for a few weeks again. With Gabi I cannot give you any time frame because he always surprises us.

“He felt something there, it was a really awkward action. It’s true that he had quite a lot of load in those games playing with the national team and with us which he hasn’t done in a long, long time. That’s really bad news for us.”

He then went on to elaborate on what he thinks needs to change in the Premier League, given the ever-increasing number of games, both domestically and internationally, that players are expected to play in.

“If we have more games, more competitiveness and physically the standards are higher — by playing more minutes — we have to do that [increase the 25-man squad size] or instead of five subs, we have 10,” Arteta said.

“The five subs is now something normal but it was a big fight to go from three to five. I cannot imagine the game in the conditions we are in today after last year and the World Cup without five subs, it would be so difficult.

“If the calendar extends, for sure we would have to think of not dropping the quality.

“The only way to do it is players have to have certain availability and you need players to pick. It’s about everybody.

“When is this going to stop and how long will it take for us to make the right decisions? The laws will change and probably our capacity to do things during games will change as well.

“We will have to adapt, for sure.”