Arsenal Face 3,600-Mile Test of Squad Depth in Six-Game Run

Mikel Arteta’s side are entering a demanding stretch of fixtures that will see them travel across both the country and the continent. The road trip starts with Nottingham Forest this weekend, before jetting off to Germany to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League just three days later. 

Further away trips to face Fleetwood Town, Liverpool and Slavia Prague are packed into a hectic 17-day period, leaving little room for recovery between matches. 

The schedule comes at a difficult time with the Gunners already dealing with some injury concerns. Christos Tzolis is sidelined with a hamstring injury, while Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi both picked up knocks in the warmdown following the 3-0 win against Leeds United, raising questions over whether Arsenal should reconsider their post-match activities. 

“The temptation is now we don’t want to take that risk, and we’ll do something else, but we were going to do that anyway the next day,” Arteta explained when asked last week.

“When you play these kind of small-sided games, there is contact, and these things happen. They didn’t happen once last season and we did it 37 times I think, so the fact that it’s there, that people are watching and then they think it raises other doubts. But now it’s very difficult to do. 

“[The] question was if we had to do this again, the way we planned the seven days that we had in that period with the players that didn’t have enough load, would it have been the case? The answer is yes, and it’s a contact sport and this can happen. 

“What we can do is [say] “guys, they are so competitive, when we do that, please don’t touch each other too much,” to avoid these kind of things, so that’s it.”

Arteta will therefore need to manage his squad carefully, with the short turnaround between the six games increasing the importance of rotating the squad to manage minutes. 

Players such as Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke have points to prove, while Mikel Merino has been faultless in his appearances for club and country. Max Dowman could also play an important role, as he continues to attract attention with his performances. 

However, Arsenal’s output when rotating their squad have been a cause for concern. Despite dominating large periods of Tuesday evening’s clash with Lille, things only began to start clicking when Arteta turned to three of his regulars, bringing on Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard.

For the reigning champions, navigating the tricky run successfully would allow them to maintain their push in the Premier League while also continuing to compete on two cup fronts. The next six matches will test the full depth of the first-team squad and the schedule leaves little margin for disruption.