Mikel Arteta has denied any of his decisions on Tuesday were related to Sunday’s League Cup final, insisting it’s only now that the team can start thinking about it.
The strength of Arsenal’s current squad is such that it’s getting a bit hard to tell when Mikel Arteta is playing his first-choice team and when he’s rotating players out.
An example of that on Tuesday was Viktor Gyokeres’ spot in the starting lineup against Bayer Leverkusen. Kai Havertz had started against Everton, so it’s unclear at the moment which of the two is favoured by the Arsenal manager.
The likes of Martin Zubimendi, Ben White, and Leandro Trossard were then withdrawn midway through the second half, along with Eberechi Eze, who had a knock. But Arteta has denied that had anything to do with Sunday’s League Cup final against Manchester City.
“No, it was related to the game and certain players that needed to come off, basically,” Arteta insisted to TNT Sports. “Because of the amount of minutes that they have played. Now we can focus on the final.
“Enjoy tonight and prepare, because we have a beautiful final to play on Sunday.”
Arteta then reiterated the same thing in his post-match press conference, saying: “Every decision to be honest was focused on today’s game.
“What was at stake was huge, we’ve been three times in the quarter-finals but I don’t know how many [in total]. Not that many, I don’t think, and that tells you how difficult it is to achieve it, and now we can start to think about Sunday.”
It’s no real surprise that certain players might have needed to come off early, given the demands on the squad at the moment. Declan Rice spoke to the media after the game about how tiring the schedule is for him and the team.
“I’m shattered,” Rice admitted. “It’s non-stop, honestly. Obviously we’re in all the competitions still, so it’s been every three days since October. It’s been different, but we’ve been coping with it as best we can.
“It is really tiring, but when you have a night like tonight, a round-of-16 to get through to the quarter-finals, you find energy, and you find ways to win. We keep doing that, so it’s all good.”
Arsenal fans will hope the squad can find one last burst of energy this weekend, with the chance to lift a trophy before the international break gets underway.