‘Thank you so much to the Premier League’
Mikel Arteta has criticised the Premier League by claiming that Arsenal’s fixture schedule in the race for a top-four place is “not fair”.
The Gunners suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of Liverpool on Wednesday night, with Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino both getting on the scoresheet for Jurgen Klopp’s men.
Despite a promising first-half, the north London outfit’s five-match winning run came to an abrupt end. However, the Gunners remain fourth – one point ahead of Manchester United – with two games in hand.
Arsenal boss Arteta is less than pleased with the current fixture schedule, sarcastically thanking the Premier League for the congestion.
“Thank you so much to the Premier League to do that,” he said sarcastically in his post-match press conference.
“And they’ve done it again for when we have to play Chelsea and Manchester United. So if they want to give them any advantage I say today, thank you so much for doing that.”
Arteta criticises schedule, with quick turnaround to Villa game:
"Thank you very much to the Premier League… it's not fair what they've done."
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) March 16, 2022
The Gunners travel to Chelsea on Wednesday April 20, before hosting United on Saturday April 23.
Despite the gruelling schedule, the Spaniard is confident that his players will be able to handle the physical demands of the fixture congestion.
He added: “Yes 100 per cent.
“Don’t worry on Saturday, the players will be there with energy. They will sleep, eat well. But thank you so much to the Premier League for putting the fixtures like this. Very, very helpful.”
While Arsenal are involved in a difficult run of matches, they do have the advantage of being able to focus solely on the Premier League – having not been involved in European competition all seasons and having been knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round by Nottingham Forest in January.
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