Arsene Wenger believes that Arsenal’s participation in the Europa League has helped ease the injury burden on his squad.
Wenger was largely able to fill out his Europa League sides with squad players and youngsters as Arsenal cruised to the top of their group, with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Laurent Koscielny going unused so far.
Though Arsenal’s absence from the Champions League for the first time in two decades has hardly been an entirely positive experience – and the dreaded Thursday-Sunday grind of the knockout stages is ahead of them – Wenger is taking the positives from his side’s sojourn in the outer reaches of European football.
“First of all, we rotated more in the Europa League and was able to rest more players,” Wenger told Arsenal.com. “Afterwards, you always improve by learning from the seasons before, you learn more about the general concept of our training intensity.
“We also learn more about the individuals. We have a deeper analysis of what happened with the player last year, whether he got injured, how many games he played in three weeks and after he got injured. From the player’s injury history, you learn when to rest him and when to play him.”
Going into Saturday’s game at Tottenham Wenger’s side currently have the joint-fewest injury absentees of any side in the Premier League, with long-term absentee Santi Cazorla the only player guaranteed to be unavailable for the trip to Wembley.
Wenger added: “It’s about adapting the training loads to the history of the individuals. It’s also about strengthening where they’ve had weak moments in their history.
“When you play every three days, you weaken your players. When you rest them - and sometimes during the week when they do not play - you can work them to strengthen their physical condition. After that, they’re a bit less vulnerable.”
Arsenal return to Europa League action on February 15, when they travel to Sweden to take on Ostersunds in their round of 32 first leg.
