Mikel Arteta Urges Premier League to Expand Matchday Squads

Mikel Arteta has cranked up the pressure on the Premier League, urging officials to act fast and expand matchday squads as early as this season in the name of player welfare.

The Arsenal manager, speaking ahead of his side’s clash with Aston Villa, wants the current limit of nine substitutes pushed higher. Clubs were previously restricted to seven bench players before the Covid-19 pandemic, but Arteta believes the modern game has already left those numbers behind.

For him, this is no abstract debate. It is personal and immediate.

This season he has had to omit big names such as Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus from matchday squads, a situation he says creates “a real problem” on several levels. Leaving senior players at home, he argues, is bad for the club, bad for the individual, and bad for the collective spirit of a group trying to handle the relentless demands of domestic and international football.

“That is why I have been begging Premier League officials to extend those numbers just for the safety of the players, which is the most important thing,” Arteta said.

“I think every team needs more than 20 players on the pitch, ideally, to maintain the level of demand in the international matches we face, but these are the rules, and within these rules, we have to play.”

The Spaniard is not just talking about tactics or options off the bench. He is talking about human beings who train all week and then discover they are not even allowed to sit in the dugout.

He admits those conversations cut deep.

“We need to be very close to the players to explain those situations in the right way, so that everyone feels their importance, because they will indeed be important,” he said.

Those “difficult” talks, as he calls them, often come with players who would prefer to travel, change, warm up and live the match from the technical area rather than watch it unfold on television from their living rooms.

“The question should be put to the players more than anyone else,” Arteta added. “What do they want? If they say: no, I would rather stay at home, then we will have a problem because they will not like what they are doing.”

He is convinced the answer is obvious.

“I am sure that if you ask the players, everyone would want to be part of the team on matchday, otherwise you would have to tell one of them that he is not even part of the matchday squad. That is extremely hard. And it will not benefit anyone.”

Arteta argues that locking players out of the squad picture damages their sense of belonging and makes it harder for clubs to assess them properly over a season.

“This does not benefit the club, nor does it benefit the assessment of the player, nor does it help them feel part of it. In my opinion, it is a real problem and it has a very simple solution.”

For Arsenal’s manager, that solution sits on the Premier League’s table. The question now is whether the league is willing to move as quickly as he wants.