Mikel Arteta doesn’t have this luxury – Arsenal legend identifies ‘main problem’
The Gunners are sitting fourth in the Premier League table on seven points and are one of the top contenders for the Premier League title after back-to-back second place finishes.
Arsenal have a big game on Sunday when they will travel to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first north London derby of the 2023/24 campaign.
However, Arteta’s side are missing two key players in Declan Rice, who is suspended, and Martin Odegaard, who picked up an ankle injury during the international break.
The Arsenal boss is also missing new signing Mikel Merino who has picked up a shoulder injury and has decisions to make on his starting eleven ahead of the weekend.
Petit is worried about the lack of options in the Arsenal squad
The Arsenal legend admitted that he was worried about the lack of quality options beyond the starting eleven in the Arsenal squad at the start of the season.
He stressed that it was the same issue last year while Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has the luxury of rotating his starting eleven every week.
He conceded that it is the luxury that Arteta doesn’t have and it could again turn out to be a big problem this season as well.
“That was my worry at the beginning of the season”, Petit said on talkSPORT.
“It was the same last season, rotation of the team and this is the main problem for Arteta.
“When you play every three days in big games because the Champions League is back next week so it will be very tough mentally and physically.
“We can see that Pep Guardiola is changing his eleven every day three days, he takes away six players from the first eleven but Arteta doesn’t get the same luxury of options.
“For me, this could be again very important this season.”
Arsenal could throw in Raheem Sterling into the mix in the derby after signing him on loan on deadline day in the summer.
