Cristian Mosquera and Declan Rice sent off against Brentford, Mikel Arteta insists ‘players are not machines’

However, Cristian Mosquera and Declan Rice were sent off as compensation. The former was substituted at half-time with a “knee or ankle” problem, while England international Rice appeared to pick up a calf problem seven minutes into the game.

“It’s probably not one thing, but it helps the players, everyone in the league and everyone to do what they need to do,” Arteta said of his team’s injury problems.

“Give us, especially the teams that play a lot in Europe, one more day. I think, the public, we can do that, because we will all benefit from it.

Rice is one of the greatest set-piece players I’ve ever seen – Keown

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“We’ve never had a schedule like this before at any level, not just in the Premier League, but in any competition internationally. So we need to try and do that.”

“I think it’s common sense. At some point this becomes too much and the players are no longer machines. But we have to try to do that as much as possible.”

Arteta added that Merino, who scored his ninth goal in all competitions this season as a substitute center forward for Arsenal, eased tensions amid injuries to the club’s two traditional No.9s.

“I think that’s a lesson learned,” he said. “And I took that lesson because all summer I was thinking, what would happen to Gabi Jesus and Kai if I brought a 9? And I had a lot of 9s.

“I think I like them a lot too. Okay, what do we do? How do we deal with it? And so far, we haven’t had any problems with them getting hurt. So just live in the moment, live in the moment, and deal with the situation when it comes to it. That’s it.”