Arteta leans on old tropes as he addresses Arsenal’s title worries

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has once again leaned on his squad’s fitness ahead of the first division run-in that has seen Manchester City keep up the pace with the title-winning hopefuls.

Calafiori, Ødegaard, and Havertz were the main squad absentees from The Gunners’ recent FA Cup fourth round win, which saw them field a near-full strength lineup against Wigan, from England’s third division.

The Italian left-back was ruled out in the warmup ahead of the game and right-sided full-back Ben White was taken off early in the game with an injury. Mike Merino is also out for the long-term with a foot issue.

Injuries appear to be Arteta’s auto-response

Preparing for the worst, a title collapse, while laying out his reasons early, Arteta did not shy away from the fact that the latter stage of the season will be particularly gruelling for a team already at their limits. “We are coping with that,” he said when asked about the growing injury list, “but we need some players back and fit, not only for numbers but different options in relation to the opponents we have, so the quicker they are back the better.”

This is not the first time that Mikel Arteta has turned to injuries as a reason for team selection or performances. Towards the end of 2025, he claimed Arsenal were in a “really dangerous circle” due to their injury situation, despite sitting top of the Champions League qualification group and Premier League, going through the former as leaders and without dropping a single point.

Ahead of the previous season, he revealed that he thought Arsenal were “super short” and “couldn’t do anything about it” when it came to the squad; later that year they reached the Champions League semi-finals, losing to the eventual winners, PSG; they then went on to spend over $250 million on various players.

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At the time of writing, Arsenal sit four points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table after 26 games played. They play against rock-bottom Wolves in their next game before a north-London derby against Tottenham Hotspur, who will be hoping that they can rely on a new manager bounce after appointing Igor Tudor following the sacking of Thomas Frank earlier in the month.

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