Luis Enrique has responded to comparisons between his approach to the weekend fixtures and Mikel Arteta’s, with both teams losing their matches 2-1.
Paris Saint-Germain boss Luis Enrique and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta approached their weekend games in very different ways on Saturday, with Enrique making 10 changes to his team whilst Arteta made just two.
Enrique clearly preferred to rest his players ahead of the second leg next Wednesday, whilst Arteta opted to keep his warm by giving them another game.
The end result was the same, with PSG losing 2-1 to RC Strasbourg and Arsenal losing 2-1 to AFC Bournemouth.
“Mr. Arteta has his way of working, Mr. Enrique has his. I don’t know which is better,” Enrique said afterwards. “They had rest periods when we didn’t.”
The PSG boss was presumably referring to the first leg, with Arsenal having a weekend break ahead of the game whilst PSG played a league fixture against OGC Nice.
Perhaps it makes sense that PSG would want a break this time, and that Arsenal would opt not to take one.
“Apart from the result, all the objectives I had set were achieved,” the PSG manager added.
Arsenal have perhaps suffered the negative consequences of not rotating more, with the team enduring a demoralising defeat and concern about Martin Odegaard’s fitness following a knock during the game.
But we’ll only know the full consequences of the two manager’s approaches after Wednesday’s second leg.