Unai Emery Hints at Heavy Squad Rotation Ahead of Crucial Leicester City Clash
Arsenal manager Unai Emery has admitted that he may be forced to rotate his squad heavily for his side's meeting with Leicester City, given the Gunners' congested set of fixtures over the next seven days.
Although the Premier League returns this weekend after the international break, Arsenal must wait until Monday to play their match against Leicester City after it was moved due to television scheduling.
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This means Emery's men will have a shorter recovery period before their Europa League game away at Portuguese side Sporting CP on Thursday night, with the team flying out on Wednesday.
In turn, this creates the knock-on effect of even less recovery time before their next Premier League game, which sees them travel to Crystal Palace next Sunday for an early afternoon kick-off.
The packed fixture schedule that awaits Arsenal is sure to give Emery some selection headaches, but the Spaniard insists his team must be focused on the games themselves.
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Per Football.London, Emery said: “We are a team with a very high level and with a very high demand for us,” said Emery. “The TV is very important. The TV is the target to choose the matches for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
“With only three days difference between one match and another, we can do that with play and rest, we can do that with changing players. But if I decide to play with the same players on Monday, Thursday, Sunday, these players can't do that.
"The mentality is to think like this then play, rest, and to prepare with another player to find our [best] performance in each match.
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“But we want to play a lot of matches. We want to continue doing our way with different possibilities tactically with the players, but if we need to repeat a lot of matches with the [same] players, we can't do that.”
Ahead of the game against Leicester, Arsenal will welcome back Mesut Ôzil, Danny Welbeck and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all returning to full training this week.
However, Sokratis is a doubt for Monday night's game after picking up an ankle injury on international duty for Greece.
"The next game against Leicester is very big, very difficult," Emery said. "Leicester are a very good team and play with a clear identity under Claude Puel. They are very competitive, have very good players and we need every single player, and our mentality together to be stronger than in the last match.
"We need to improve because for example the match against Fulham was a very good result and a very good game for 90 minutes. But in the first 45 minutes I thought we needed to do better.
"If we are remembering the last match at the Emirates [against Watford], we won but not playing like we want, with the control against the opposition."
