‘It’s not fair’: Gunners boss Arteta slams Premier League schedule after Arsenal defeat to Liverpool
2 min readGunners boss Arteta slams Premier League schedule after Arsenal defeat to Liverpool saying ‘It’s not fair’.
Arsenal suffered a first defeat in seven but remain in pole position to snare fourth this season
After seeing his Arsenal club lose 2-0 to Liverpool, Gunners boss Arteta slammed the Premier League for enabling scheduling that sees his team play Wednesday night and then Saturday’s early kick-off.
So far in 2022, Arsenal have had a pretty quiet schedule, only playing more than one game in a week on two occasions – when they had the two legs of the Carabao Cup semi-finals to play in, where they were also beaten on aggregate by the Reds.
Now, though, a backlog of games caused by cancellations earlier in the season means they’ll have to squeeze in an extra three to keep up with their rivals for Champions League slots, and Arteta is dissatisfied with the interval between kick-offs, which has been chosen for television transmission.
Arsenal will Aston Villa in Saturday’s 12:30 pm game, before another Wednesday-Saturday turnaround next month against big rivals.
“Thank you so much to the Premier League to do that,” he said in a sarcastic fashion during 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.
“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.”
“It’s always BT, it’s Sky, it’s this, it’s that, but the one that is affected is Arsenal, and the only thing I care about and we care about is Arsenal and for Arsenal, it’s not fair.”
Arteta is not the only manager to complain about this exact set of timings.
Jurgen Klopp, previously detailed why such a short turnaround was “dangerous” for players and led to an increased risk of injury after less recovery time, particularly during the Covid-affected 20/21 campaign.
Arsenal remain in fourth place, one point ahead of Manchester United with two games in hand.
Liverpool closed the gap on leaders Man City to just a single point with victory on Wednesday.
Also read,
Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta demands ‘three new players’ in crunch talks with Stan Kroenke
Follow us
