Manager Mikel Arteta said on Tuesday Arsenal has no intentions to rotate their lineup and rest players for their midweek Premier League encounter with Crystal Palace in readiness for next week’s Champions League semi-final against Paris St Germain.
With leaders Liverpool needing only one more victory to guarantee the crown, Arsenal, second in the rankings on 66 points, are practically out of the running in the Premier League title contest.
Arteta downplayed the prospect of benching important players against 12th-placed Palace, but his club is already out of the FA Cup and was knocked out of the League Cup in the semi-finals, so leaving the Champions League as their only realistic hope of collecting medals this season.
“We cannot think in those terms, when the players are fit and available and want to play, they have to play,” he advised reporters before of Wednesday’s Emirates Stadium encounter.
Should Arsenal lose against Palace, Liverpool will be proclaimed champions; the captain of Merseyside, Virgil van Dijk, claims that their whole team will get together to watch Arsenal’s game.
Inquired if that had given Arsenal more drive to win, Arteta said: “Our incentive is to win our game and to do our best to continue with our run that we are in right now, the rest we cannot control.”
The Spaniard also gave an injury update on Bukayo Saka, who was on the receiving end of a reckless challenge by Leif Davis in a 4-0 triumph over Ipswich Town on Sunday, which left the England international hobbling and finally prompted his substitution.
