Mikel Arteta knew Arsenal squad was ‘super short’, had injury concerns

Mikel Arteta has said Arsenal started this season aware they were “super short” in squad depth and possessed several players at risk of injury but “couldn’t do anything about it.”

The Gunners travel to Liverpool on Sunday ready to perform a guard of honour for their opponents rather than compete for the Premier League title after the Reds were crowned champions two weeks earlier.

Arteta’s side face a fifth consecutive season without a trophy after exiting the Champions League at the semi-final stage to Paris Saint-Germain in midweek.

They have battled fitness problems all season with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Ben White among those to have been sidelined for extended periods while Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Magalhães and Takehiro Tomiyasu have suffered season-ending injuries.

By contrast, ten of Liverpool’s outfield players played more than 30 league games this season and Arteta said: “It’s a lot of factors to that. We knew from the beginning of the decision that our squad was super short and being super short we had some players that had a high probability of getting injured, because that’s what they had in the last few seasons. So we knew that and we cannot do anything about it.

“That’s a big thing to win trophies, you know, and [Liverpool] did that extremely well. They managed to maintain that consistency, that level of players, a system, a coach, a stadium that has created again, and consistently, an incredible atmosphere for them.

“So you need a lot of ingredients or you don’t win the Premier League. That’s the difficulty of it, and it’s true that this season we never found that consistently because of the issues that we had.

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“I don’t want to use it as an excuse, that’s for sure, because with the same thing… we were the only team – we have the best League in the world, yes? We all agree. And we were the only team on the park in the [Champions League] semi-finals. That’s the level.”

Arsenal are expected to be active in the summer market with ESPN reporting last month that the Real Sociedad is set to become their first signing despite late interest from Real Madrid.

The Gunners are also in the market for a striker and sources have told ESPN that Red Bull Leipzig forward Benjamin Sesko, Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyökeres and Newcastle’s Alexander Isak are all on their shortlist.

“We will do everything that we can to improve the team and especially improve the players that we already have and whatever the market offers to give us a better chance to win for sure we will try to do it,” added Arteta.