Mikel Arteta has dismissed concerns about fatigue in his Arsenal squad and insisted that victory over Wolves has reinvigorated his players as they prepare to host Chelsea on Tuesday night.
Arsenal, the league leaders, have the chance to move four points clear of Manchester City, with Pep Guardiola’s side not in action until Thursday evening against Brighton. Last week, Arteta said the scrapping of FA Cup replays was necessary to “protect our players” amid a gruelling season in which Arsenal reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League – where they went out against Bayern Munich – for the first time in 14 years.
Bukayo Saka is set to make his 44th club appearance of the season on Tuesday, having also played eight times for England, while Declan Rice has started all but one of Arsenal’s league games this season. But Arteta is hoping the opportunity to win the club’s first league title for 20 years can galvanise his players into believing the old saying that tiredness is only in the mind.
“There are a lot of studies that prove that. If you can change the context and manipulate certain things, you can get something out of people that probably you don’t expect,” Arteta said. “There is a lot around it. I don’t think we are in the stage where we need that, you can see that the team really wants it. There is so much at stake. We will try to be as fresh as possible but certainly I think we can cope with that. When I saw them this morning I had to stop them because winning is a big boost of energy. After winning against Wolves and having to play a London derby everyone is ready. We have to think and feel that we are fresh to play in the best possible way.”
Arsenal’s win at Molineux was their first in four attempts after being knocked out of the Champions League and suffering a costly home defeat against Aston Villa that handed the initiative to City in the title race. The mental strength of Arteta’s young squad has once again been called into question after they missed out on the title last season but the manager – who said he is “convinced” his friend and mentor Mauricio Pochettino will be successful at Chelsea – revealed that he and his staff will provide as much psychological support to the players as they can during the run-in.
“There will be a few things,” he said. “We have excellent professionals as well at the club who are constantly on top of that, much more than me. It is not something you can do on the day, to change the outcome of the next three weeks. It is something that you do daily.
“I call it a drizzle. If you go out there you don’t wear an umbrella, but you are constantly getting wet every single day and then, before you know it, you are soaking wet and you are ready, because it is every single day as a habit.”
