Arsenal midfielder Mikel Arteta has voiced his frustration at the Premier League fixture schedule after they have to travel to Manchester City just 56 hours after returning to England.
The Gunners were playing a Champions League match in Italy on Wednesday night against Napoli and are now set to face City tomorrow lunch-time, which has given them hardly no time to prepare or rest ahead of the massive top-of-the-table clash.
The vice-captain of the club believes the schedule has given City an unfair advantage because they’ve had more time to rest and prepare for the game, whereas Arsenal’s player only arrived back in the country at 4am yesterday morning.
Arteta said: “I don’t understand why we play Sunday afternoon, Wednesday evening, get back at 4am and then play again on Saturday morning in Manchester. There’s nothing we can do, just recover well.
“We will have a late warm-down on Thursday, try to get our legs back for Friday, travel on Friday and be as well prepared as we can – and they will be ready for us because they rested seven players in Munich.
“We know it can be a big statement if we get a good result there. It’s a big game and we want to win it.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
