Arteta must heed ‘trembling’ Arsenal staff advice over Martinelli and Saka’s desire to play football

Gabriel Martinelli declared *himself* fit to play against Manchester City on Sunday. That can’t be Mikel Arteta’s policy. It paid off this time for Arsenal, but will surely cost them in the end. 

“It’s too much for the players,” Mikel Arteta said in the wake of Jurrien Timber’s ACL tear in August, referring to the packed schedule that’s routinely blamed for such injuries.

Jurgen Klopp is a loud and consistent voice when it comes to his players’ welfare, shouting particularly forcefully when the broadcasters dare to give Liverpool a Saturday lunchtime kick-off, but all the top managers do it, with a license to moan apparently handed out along with European qualification.

We can’t blame them for speaking up for their players. They don’t want them to get injured, and neither do we. Arsenal’s win over Manchester City was nowhere close to the spectacle it would have been had the suspended Rodri, injured Kevin De Bruyne and Bukayo Saka been playing. And it’s also impossible to argue with their claim that the number of games is contributing to the injuries.

But perhaps Saka would have been playing against City if Arteta prioritised player welfare to the degree he demands from the governing bodies, and perhaps Gabriel Martinelli should not have been.

After the game at the Emirates, Arteta revealed that Martinelli passed himself fit to play.

“Everyone was saying Gabi it will be too early for you. Yesterday he said ‘boss, I told you I’m going to be ready for this’. It happened that Leo, after 30 minutes, felt something in his hamstring. I turned around and [Martinelli] was ready to go with his kit. ‘Boss, I’m ready’.”

“It’s the joy of a kid,” Arteta said, regaling reporters after a happy ending which saw the Brazilian win the game for Arsenal, and give the fans hope that this may be their year to break Manchester City’s stranglehold on the Premier League. But “kids” aren’t just joyful, they’re carefree, and definitely not qualified to ascertain whether they’re actually “ready” to play a game of football.

“All the medical staff was trembling,” Arteta added with a smile that probably wouldn’t have been there had Martinelli suffered a setback after the advice of those professionals was ignored.

The spotlight is very much on Premier League medical staffs this season. There were the leaked WhatsApp messages from Trevoh Chalobah’s personal trainer to put further pressure on those at Chelsea, who are overloaded by injuries, as are the members of Manchester United’s medical team. And the sheer number of Premier League players on the treatment table – currently 122 – leads to inevitable questions over the running of those departments.

But they don’t have the final say. If a manager wants a player to play, they will. Apparently at Arsenal, if the player wants to play, they will. We can probably assume it was a similar story with Saka.

“He was limping quite badly,” Arteta said after Saka had to be withdrawn against Bournemouth, before starting him against Lens, where he again had to be taken off. He will contest that they were different injuries, but to suggest a problem in one area doesn’t leave you susceptible to a problem elsewhere would be a nonsense.

Fortunately, sense prevailed on Sunday, despite the winger supossedly being “in contention” to play against Manchester City, as his absence broke an extraordinary run of 87 consecutive Premier League starts for Arsenal which appears now, inevitably, to have taken its toll.

Presumably Saka ruled himself out. Or maybe Martinelli assesses his teammates’ readiness for Premier League football as well as his own? We can see it now: Martinelli MD sticking a knee brace on Timber, helping him to his feet and declaring “Boss, he’s ready.” It’s the joy of a kid.

Arteta is quite right to admire the determination of his players to play in the biggest games, but it should be no great surprise that professional footballers want to play football. In fact the desire to play should be something all footballers have in common.

Arteta, like all managers, has a duty of care to his players. This time it worked out brilliantly. But he might not be so fortunate next time, at which point the Arsenal boss will undoubtedly pin the blame on the hectic schedule rather than because he risks players against the advice of his medical staff.

That simply can’t be the policy. It’s ludicrous, and will cost Arsenal in the long run. So don’t ignore the medical staff’s “trembles”, Mikel – it’s not a laughing matter. Ignore the “kid” who wants to play but might not again – at least for a while – if you take their word over the expertise of the people who know better.