Mikel Arteta has again pressed the Premier League to allow larger matchday squads, arguing that more players should be given the chance to be involved on the day. His latest comments came after Arsenal\u2019s comfortable 3-0 win, when he said the absence of some squad members was disappointing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really sad not to have their availability,\u201d Arteta said to TNT Sports. \u201cI\u2019ve been fighting with the Premier League to extend and accommodate more players in the squad because they deserve to be in the squad, there\u2019s no question.<\/p>\n
\u201cEthan [Nwaneri] and Marli [Salmon] as well, who has had the whole preseason with us. Hopefully we can change that rule so players can enjoy on the pitch and can be an option to play and contribute to the team going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is not the first time Arteta has raised the issue. In January, he made a similar argument and pointed to the \u201cmental health\u201d of players who train throughout the build-up but miss out on a place in the matchday group. Even so, the complaint sits uneasily with the reality that the Arsenal manager is dealing with a problem of his own squad depth, one that few other clubs would be eager to solve in the same way.<\/p>\n
Arteta was allowed to name 20 players for Sunday\u2019s Community Shield, but the Premier League limit remains 18. He has pushed for two extra spots, ideally to move closer to the numbers used in UEFA competitions such as the Champions League, though he would prefer even more options.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not even allowed to travel with the team,\u201d he said earlier this year. \u201cSo tell me another job that you do that. I cannot go to the kitchen tomorrow and say to two other chefs today you don\u2019t cook, just go there and see how they cook or go home. It\u2019s really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no such concern from Enzo Maresca, who was able to call on Jack Grealish, a player who has not featured for City since May 2025.<\/p>\n
If the league were to widen squads from 18 to 20, clubs with the strongest depth would benefit most. Arsenal, however, would be among the biggest winners. Using estimated transfer values for outfield players, the next two players in Arsenal\u2019s pecking order would be worth around $43.5 million combined, ahead of Manchester City and Chelsea, and far above Tottenham Hotspur and several others across the division.<\/p>\n
That measure places Arsenal clear of the rest, while even Manchester United and Liverpool begin to run into thinner options by the time they reach the 19th and 20th names. It is one reason Arteta is so keen to keep making his case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta wants bigger Premier League squads, arguing Arsenal players deserve more matchday chances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,2022,172],"tags":[1836,1162,59],"class_list":["post-18556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-community-shield","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18556","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=18556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}