Mikel Arteta has argued that the end-to-end drama seen when Paris Saint-Germain met Bayern Munich in the Champions League is a product of squad freshness that clubs in the Premier League cannot routinely afford.<\/p>\n
Arteta pointed to the gulf in minutes and recovery between the competitions as the decisive factor behind such high-octane games. \u201cThe quality of the two teams, and especially the individual quality of players, I have never seen something like this,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cBut when I look at the amount of minutes and the freshness of those players, I\u2019m not surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo deliver that much quality you have to be very fresh, and the difference in the leagues and the way they are competing is night and day. You just have to see a lot of stats around it. We are comparing two different worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
The manager used concrete examples to underline his point. Bayern went into their recent continental tie after being crowned Bundesliga champions. Vincent Kompany attempted to rest much of his usual starting eleven but was forced to introduce Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Jamal Musiala from the bench after his side trailed Mainz 3\u20130 at half-time; Bayern ultimately won 4\u20133.<\/p>\n
PSG have benefited at times from Ligue 1 scheduling that allowed extra recovery earlier in the tournament, a practice that has attracted criticism. Even so, PSG did rotate for a 3\u20130 win over Angers when they did not have the same recovery window before the semifinal first leg.<\/p>\n
Arteta also highlighted the specific case of Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9. The reigning Ballon d\u2019Or holder and the Player of the Match against Bayern has started just nine times in Ligue 1 this season and has played fewer minutes across all competitions than 14 players in Arteta\u2019s Arsenal squad. Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 remains PSG\u2019s top scorer on 18 in all competitions, with 10 Ligue 1 goals leaving him seventh in that division\u2019s scoring charts.<\/p>\n
For Arteta, the contrast in fixture congestion and rotation policies explains why Arsenal\u2019s more cautious, conservation-minded approach is necessary in the current Premier League campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta: PSG and Bayern can produce Champions League classics because they can rest in league. often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1062,1031,969],"tags":[1312,1064,1305],"class_list":["post-13574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-bayern-munich","category-paris-saint-germain","category-premier-league","tag-arsenal-fitness","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-bench-selection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}