Arteta believes teams will initially struggle ahead of Premier League return
With the Premier League set to return in just under a week, Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta believes teams will struggle to adjust to playing intense matches.
Speaking to Sky Sports on their The Football Show following the Gunners’ 3-2 defeat to Brentford, the Spaniards said it will take some time before teams are back to their best.
“We’ve been trying in big groups just for 10 days. You can play a friendly game, you can play 45 minutes, but it’s not the same as Premier League rhythm at all,” he said.
“I think it will be very difficult to sustain big rhythms for 90 minutes for the first few games at least.”
In preparation for their Premier League return, the Gunners have contested two friendlies at the Emirates Stadium. Last Saturday, Arsenal comfortably defeated Charlton 6-0 but were unable to win again following their defeat to Brentford, last night.
The Gunners boss told Sky Sports that he was trying new things with the team. “We’re trying to give minutes in their legs to all of the players, obviously you have to change a lot of players through the games,” he said.
“Getting adapted to playing in an empty stadium as well, not having that energy from the fans.”
“It was good, we played two friendlies, we’re getting a bit of rhythm, we haven’t played for a while, we tried to make is as close as possible to a real game.”
Arsenal return to Premier League action next Wednesday as they travel to Manchester to face Manchester City.
