{"id":642546,"date":"2026-05-02T07:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T07:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/642546\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T07:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T07:15:10","slug":"psg-and-bayern-in-different-world-to-tired-premier-league-teams-says-arteta-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/642546\/","title":{"rendered":"PSG and Bayern in \u2018different world\u2019 to tired Premier League teams, says Arteta | Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta has dismissed suggestions that Premier League sides are incapable of matching the levels hit by their European rivals, saying that freshness was key to Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain producing arguably the game of the season<\/a> in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.<\/p>\n

With the Arsenal<\/a> manager stressing player availability will make the difference during a defining moment in the club\u2019s history, he argued that English football\u2019s competitiveness cannot be ignored when it comes to accusations that the quality of football has dropped.<\/p>\n

Arsenal have fought on four fronts during a draining campaign and Arteta, whose side have a number of injury problems before they hope to boost their title chances by beating Fulham on Saturday, pointed out that the domestic dominance of PSG and Bayern ensured they were in peak condition during their thriller in Paris on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look at that game, Bayern v PSG, it\u2019s probably the best game I ever witnessed in the quality of two teams and especially the individual quality the players delivered, I have never seen something like this,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cBut when I look at the amount of minutes and the freshness of those players, then I\u2019m not surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo deliver that much quality you have to be very fresh and the difference in the leagues and the way they compete is night and day. And you just have to see a lot of stats recently around it. We are comparing two different worlds. You cannot compare one part of that without any context around it, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal will go six points clear of City if they beat Fulham, although Pep Guardiola\u2019s side would have two games in hand on the league leaders. The Fulham game is sandwiched by Arsenal\u2019s Champions League semi-final against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, which is locked at 1-1 before Tuesday\u2019s second leg, and there are concerns that Martin \u00d8degaard will exacerbate the absence of Kai Havertz and Jurri\u00ebn Timber by also missing out with a knee problem.<\/p>\n

Martin \u00d8degaard is a doubt for Saturday\u2019s game against Fulham with a knee issue. Photograph: Eurasia Sport Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHave every player available and fit at their best,\u201d Arteta said of lessons from previous title races. \u201cC\u2019est fini. With that, I\u2019m a happy man. That\u2019s the most important thing. When you talk about the other two teams the other night [PSG and Bayern] \u2013 how many players were available? All of them, at their very best. That\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arteta hopes that Havertz will return to face Atl\u00e9tico at the Emirates Stadium. One boost for Arsenal is that Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es is not serving a domestic ban. The Premier League\u2019s Key Match Incident panel has ruled that the defender should have been sent off for his clash with Erling Haaland during Arsenal\u2019s recent 2-1 defeat to Manchester City<\/a>. Arteta, though, expressed surprise at the KMI\u2019s verdict on Gabriel, who only received a booking for the clash. \u201cI don\u2019t think we are lucky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There was a defiant tone from Arteta, who urged his players to embrace the challenge of trying to win the Premier League and the Champions League. \u201cWe know what\u2019s at stake,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to push it. Everybody has to lead himself and take ownership of the moment because the impact that you can have in the moment now is going to define the history of the club. That\u2019s a very powerful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta has dismissed suggestions that Premier League sides are incapable of matching the levels hit by their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-642546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}