Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta: Premier League should help teams competing in Europe

Mikel Arteta has said the Premier League should provide more help to English teams in Europe but vowed Arsenal will learn from past lessons when facing Fulham.

Saturday’s crucial league game comes in the middle of their Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid, having drawn Wednesday’s first leg 1-1 in Spain before Tuesday’s return match.

Arsenal lost at home to Bournemouth in between the two legs of their quarterfinal tie against Sporting CP to continue a troubling record when having switch between competitions.

Since returning to the Champions League in 2023-24, Arsenal have won just one game sandwiched between knockout rounds — against Everton in March where they required goals in the 89th and 90th minute.

The Gunners failed to win any of their matches between knockout rounds last season — drawing with Manchester United and Brentford before losing to Bournemouth — and in 2023-24, the only match they lost in the run-in came against Aston Villa when they faced Bayern Munich either side in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Last month, Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) granted Paris Saint-Germain’s request to move a Ligue 1 game between their quarterfinal tie with Liverpool in line with similar alternations made for clubs in other countries including Spain.

Asked whether the Premier League should offer similar assistance to English sides, Arteta said: “Ideally, yes. We all know that. If they can do that, that would be great.”

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Pushed on what lessons he could take from the Bournemouth turnaround, Arteta cited the extra five hours Arsenal will have against Fulham having kicked off at 12.30 p.m. local time against Bournemouth.

“The time of the game is going to be different to start with,” he said. “And hopefully the game and the result will be very different. The game especially when the game turned and how efficient they were with certain actions.

“We know the difficulty of the opponent, and of the schedule but I sense it in the team. We want it that much that tomorrow we’re going to be fresh again and ready to go.”

Arsenal have no margin for error in the league, leading Manchester City by three points having played a game more. That defeat to Villa in April 2024 meant they missed out on the title by one point.

“I want to think about all the turnarounds that we have so difficult that we won,” he said. “But we can learn from the positive ones, from the other ones, we know we want to win every single game, which is very difficult to do.

“We have prepared in the best possible way since the moment that the final whistle went in Atlético. We’ve done everything that we possibly can to give ourselves the best chance to recover, to bring the right energy, to prepare the game in the right way. And now it’s about the selection and performance on the pitch.”

Arteta confirmed Kai Havertz and Jurriën Timber will not be available against Fulham due to injury while Martin Ødegaard is a doubt.