Mikel Arteta has called on the Premier League to scrap teams playing on Saturday lunchtime after a Wednesday night game.
Arsenal face that exact turnaround tomorrow as they head to Aston Villa after losing to Manchester City and falling behind them in the title race.
Under Premier League rules, Champions League teams do not have to play at 12.30pm on a Saturday if they were in action on the Wednesday night.
The ruling, however, does not apply to teams competing in other competitions and Arteta has called for that to be addressed.
“Well, there are certain rules with the Champions League,” he said. “When you are playing on Wednesday night and then you cannot play [on Saturday lunchtime]. So I think that should apply to any competition.”
Champions League teams previously used to have negotiate the tight turnaround, but at the end of the 2020/21 season the new ruling came in after a furious backlash from managers, in particular Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp.
“I think that is why one of the changes was made towards the Champions League teams, especially,” said Arteta.
“But I think following the same principle, I think you are talking physiologically, that is very difficult to turnaround on that period to get the best outcome and reduce the injury risk for players, but that’s it.
“We have to play. I want the players to be in the best possible mindset and physically ready to get that challenge going.”
Manchester City are also in action tomorrow, but they travel to Nottingham Forest at 3pm. Arteta does not want to use the scheduling as an excuse and has called on his players to have “full energy”.
Arsenal were knocked off top spot by City on Wednesday, but if they claim a point at Villa Park they will go top - even if only for a few hours.
“They put the schedule the way they did. It’s a bit unusual, but it is what it is,” said Arteta. “The players are highly motivated for tomorrow’s game because we want to perform well and win the game.”
Arsenal had a recovery day yesterday and the squad watched the City game back. Arteta said that has given them more “clarity” as to what went wrong.
The Gunners are currently on their worst run of the season and they have failed to win any of their last four games in all competitions.
Arteta has called on senior players, such as Jorginho and Oleksandr Zinchenko, to step up and stop the slide.
“You need players with those experiences that can guide and give reassurances and show them (the young players) the path of how it gets done,” he said.
“That’s what we’re talking about. If you want to win a league, you have to dig deep.
“Sometimes you’re going to lose one or two matches, sometimes you’re going to merit a win, sometimes you’re going to have to win it in the 96th minute, sometimes you have to play with 10 men. You have to play in many different contexts.
“You want to get maximum points and we didn’t in the last three games. We have to look at ourselves, we have to be more efficient.
“For the play we have generated we haven’t generated enough points and that’s down to us because we want to win more games.”
