Arsenal receive unexpected international break boost over Man City, Arteta should take advantage

The international break is always an inconvenience to clubs, but for once, Arsenal may have an advantage over their title rivals, Manchester City.

Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola are expected to go head-to-head for the Premier League title yet again, and the Arsenal manager will be hoping to get over the line this time after falling short in each of the last two campaigns.

Arsenal, like City, are unbeaten in the Premier League this season. The Gunners have arguably looked better in recent games and were picking up some good momentum.

The international break ruins that, but there is one reason why Arteta will be happy.

The advantage Arsenal have over Manchester City in this international break

Manchester City boss Guardiola and many of his players have been complaining about fixture congestion recently, and the games during this international break make it worse.

City have already been dealt a huge blow after Rodri suffered a knee injury and has been ruled out for the remainder of this season.

Guardiola, like Arteta, will be keeping his fingers crossed during the international break, praying that nobody else gets injured.

With respect to the number of key players who have been called up by their respective national sides, Arsenal have a slight advantage over Manchester City.

13 City players have been summoned for international duty, including 10 of the 11 men who started their most recent Premier League game, the 3-2 win over Fulham (Sun).

Luckily for Arteta, only 10 Arsenal players have gone away with their national teams – four of them didn’t start their last game, which was the 3-1 win over Southampton.

Key stars like Kai Havertz and Thomas Partey will be staying in North London, while the likes of Jurrien Timber, Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko will get the time they need to recover from their injuries and return to full fitness.

Arteta has a full Arsenal XI at his disposal now and he should use them wisely

Arsenal still have a few key players away on international duty over the next two weeks, but Arteta has a whole senior line-up available at his disposal.

Some of them aren’t fully fit yet, but the Arsenal manager will have the opportunity to get his tactics across to them and work on video analysis among other things.

Guardiola doesn’t quite have that luxury as many of his regular starters like Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias among others have gone away and won’t be back until at least next week.

The Arsenal XI Arteta has at his disposal now are Neto, White, Timber, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Partey, Odegaard, Jesus, Sterling and Havertz.

Most of the above players are good enough to start, and to have them all available for two whole weeks ahead of a busy period is a huge boost.

Arteta should use this time wisely.