ARSENAL’S hierarchy fear burnout and fatigue have hit Mikel Arteta’s squad at the crunch time of the season.
The Gunners crashed out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage with a flat performance at Bayern Munich, just days after the 2-0 home Premier League loss to Aston Villa.
And Manchester City also fear that their glory charge is running out of gas after Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Manuel Akanji all ASKED to be substituted before they lost on penalties to Real Madrid in their last-eight showdown at the Etihad.
At Arsenal, the likes of skipper Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Ben White, Gabriel Jesus, Jorginho and Takehiro Tomiyasu have all carried niggling injuries and battled through the pain barrier.
William Saliba has played every minute of Arsenal’s 32 Prem games, while fellow centre-back Gabriel, White, Saka, Odegaard and Declan Rice have each posted more than 3,400 minutes in all competitions.
Boss Arteta rarely rotates and does not fully trust fringe players like Fabio Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah or Reiss Nelson — and now his frontline players seem to be hitting the wall.
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Arteta admitted he wants a squad of 22 elite players he can swap in and out — much like Pep Guardiola’s City — and that is something the Gunners hope to achieve over the next few transfer windows.
But Arsenal’s workload concerns are echoed by title rivals City.
The Etihad outfit saw their Euro defence and the chance of another Treble ended by the 14-time kings of the competition.
And Guardiola’s penalty options were limited after Haaland and De Bruyne — as well as Akanji — were benched in the closing stages.
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Guardiola said: “Erling, Kevin and Manu asked me to go out. They could not continue.”
But Haaland posted on X: “It’s difficult to leave the Champions League this way but I couldn’t be prouder of the team.
“We left our hearts out there and fought til the end.
“We still have other goals to achieve, starting this weekend. Let’s do this.”
Both Arsenal and City must recover quickly, with Arteta’s men travelling to Wolves in the league on Saturday night, just minutes after Guardiola’s leaders take on Chelsea in their FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
The issue of fatigue had already been highlighted by City’s midfield lynchpin Rodri, who pleaded with Guardiola only last week to give him a rest amid burnout fears.
The Spanish star, who got a weekend off against Luton, made 56 appearances in last season’s Treble-winning campaign — but was adamant he could not repeat that feat, which prompted recent talks.
Now both teams must shake off their Euro pain instantly.
Arsenal head to Molineux knowing anything but a win will likely end their title dreams.
Last weekend’s 2-0 loss to Villa handed City a two-point gap at the top with six games remaining.
Three points at Molineux — and again at home to Chelsea on Tuesday — will put the pressure back on, with City not being able to respond until Thursday when they travel to Brighton.
Third-placed Liverpool visit Fulham on Sunday also bidding to turn up the heat on the defending champions.
For Arsenal, this is the third consecutive April that Arteta’s men have run out of steam, so far winning just five of 15 games played in that month since 2022.
Arsenal blew a five-point lead in the race for the Prem title to City last season.
And asked if the pain of recent years can be used to drive them on, skipper Odegaard said: “That is what we have to do. That is the only thing you can do.
“Every time you get hit you have to stand up and go again. The key thing is to stand together and lift each other up.
“Everything that has happened we have used in a good way and have come back stronger every time.
“We still have something really nice to play for. We can still do something very special. That is enough motivation to keep going.”
Arteta has worked closely with Guardiola as City assistant and has admirably got Arsenal back on the big stage and challenging City for top spot for a second successive year.
Yet the last-eight exit in Munich was just proof of how far away the North London club are from emulating Pep’s City and other Euro heavyweights.
Bayern are enduring a torrid season but barely broke sweat against Arsenal, using all their experience and nous to edge a 1-0 second-leg victory through Joshua Kimmich’s 63rd-minute header — winning 3-2 on aggregate.
This young Arsenal group lack know-how and belief but they also lack depth, with Nketiah’s 86th-minute substitution summing up the quality of options Arteta has.
The issues will not be fixed overnight as Arteta explained in his post-match press conference at the Allianz Arena.
He said: “We hadn’t played this competition for seven years and we hadn’t been in the quarter-finals for 14 years. There’s a reason for it.
“We want to do everything fast-forward super quick in one season. I think we have the capacity and the quality to be in the semi-final because the margins are small.
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“Those margins are coming from something else that maybe we don’t have yet. We have to learn it.
“When you look historically, it took other clubs seven, eight or ten years.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
