Following a short and unexpected absence, Arsenal will return to the European stage tonight when they take on FC Zurich to kickstart their Europa League campaign. The match is the first of four games the club will play within the space of 12 days, meaning Mikel Arteta has little choice but to rotate his squad to avoid injuries and fatigue over the next couple of weeks.
The Arsenal boss is already without Emile Smith Rowe, Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Cedric and Reiss Nelson, so there will be an added emphasis on protecting his players as much as possible in an attempt to avoid further shortages. However, it does provide an opportunity for those who have perhaps been lacking minutes so far this season and Arteta hopes squad depth can help deal with the injury setbacks.
"We don’t have that many players available, unfortunately, with injuries we’ve picked up in the last two weeks," he said. "This is a competition that we want to take very seriously, against an opponent that is going to make life difficult for us. We want to start the competition the right way and maintain our momentum."
