Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta stood in solidarity with Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola in condemning the fixture list.
Guardiola said it was “unacceptable” that his side needed to play in an FA Cup semi-final less than 72 hours after being in motion in the Champions League on Wednesday night once they played at Wembley at teatime on Saturday. Defeated Chelsea.
The Gunners’ plight was worse as they were still in Europe on Wednesday night but needed to fly back from Germany on Thursday after being knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich.
They highlighted the quick turnaround as they returned to the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Wolves on Saturday before returning to motion against Chelsea on Tuesday night.
“It’s not about us, Pep or me, it’s about the players’ welfare,” Arteta said after goals from Leandro Troussard and Martin Odegaard sent his side some extent clear of City.
“Especially while you’re competing in European competition, every little thing must be contested in the same way.
“You can’t have a team that hasn’t played for seven days or three days and has a lot of recovery time and you have to play in the Premier League or the FA Cup.
“It’s not right. If you take a look at it from any angle, it isn’t right. If you need to protect and you mostly speak about the players and the predominant character, let’s protect them and about them. I feel and do every little thing possible to offer them as much time as possible in order that they will get better they usually can maintain their show every week.
“We stayed in Munich, I feel we had two hours sleep, woke up and we began talking about Wolves first after which we understood what we needed to do to win the game.
“The boys have been incredible. You see how many games we’ve played in the last few weeks, the kind of games we’ve played and the attitude and the way they played today is top notch.
It was a good recovery from the Gunners after a dreadful week where their title hopes were damaged by a 2-0 home defeat by Aston Villa last week before their Champions League exit in Munich.
It’s not about us, Pep or me, it’s about the welfare of the players.
Mikel Arteta
But Guardiola’s side may very well be 4 points adrift of City by the time they next play as they give the impression of being to cap an exciting title race.
Arteta added: “It was really good, I liked the performance, the result, the clean sheet but in addition individually and as a team they showed they still have a step forward.
“We realized that we want to be in the big competitions, fight for the Champions League, fight for the Premier League, the level that is needed, we have to do something special. You have to have that love to compete.”
Wolves battled hard but were hampered by injuries, sidelining most of their key attacking players.
They are actually six games and not using a win, but boss Gary O’Neill was proud.
“I thought it was an incredible performance, it exceeded my expectations for what we were able to deliver today,” he said.
“We came up just short against one of the best teams in world football so there’s no shame in that.”
Credit : www.independent.co.uk
