Despite Arsenal’s absence from Europe this season and their absence from the FA Cup since January 9, Fans Online expressed their hope on champions league qualification due to scheduling of their fixtures. Mikel Arteta also jokingly blasted the Premier League for its ‘unfair’ scheduling of their fixtures.
After a home win over Leicester and a loss to Liverpool on Wednesday night, the Champions League hopefuls face Aston Villa at Villa Park in a lunchtime kickoff on Saturday. It will be their third Premier League game in six days.
Arteta’s Arsenal, who are chasing their first top-four finish since 2016, will have to play catch-up with their fixtures next month.
Arteta sarcastically complimented the Premier League for the schedule they were given following their 2-0 loss to Liverpool last night.
‘I’d like to express my gratitude to the Premier League for doing that,’ he said.
‘They’ve done it before, and they’ll do it again when we play Chelsea and Manchester United.’ So, if they want to help them out, I tell them today, ‘Thank you so much for doing that.’
‘It’s always BT, it’s Sky, it’s this, it’s that,’ says the narrator.
‘However, Arsenal is the one that gets affected, and Arsenal is the only thing that I and we care about. And it isn’t fair to Arsenal.’
However, over the course of the season, the Gunners have played far fewer games than the majority of their top-four competitors.
Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea are still still in the Champions League, while Manchester United was eliminated in the last-16 stage this week by Atletico Madrid.
West Ham remain in the Europa League and face Sevilla in the second leg of their round of 16 encounter on Thursday night.
Tottenham also took part in the Europa League group round.
Rival supporters reacted angrily to Arteta’s concerns on Twitter, claiming the Spaniard ‘lives in a bubble.’
The Gunners were also knocked out of the FA Cup early in January by Nottingham Forest, leaving them with only the Premier League schedule to contend with for the past two months.
‘I am an Arsenal fan, and I wasn’t one of those,’ said one Arsenal supporter. I got a lot of flack for it. If we can’t deal with fixture congestion by playing top opponents back to back, there’s no purpose in us being in the Champions League next season.’
Arteta, a regular critic of the Premier League’s match scheduling, said that the frenetic pace of his team’s schedule would not hinder them.
The former Arsenal midfielder has promised that the Gunners would be ‘100%’ ready for this weekend’s showdown against Steven Gerrard’s Villa.
Arsenal is a point ahead of Man United in fourth place in the Premier League.
‘Don’t worry, the guys will be there on Saturday, full of energy,’ Arteta remarked.