Increased demands have Arsenal fighting on several fronts — and winning

Arsenal are set to take on Slavia Prague on Tuesday night in what will be their sixth match in 17 days, and their prospects have never been better.

The Gunners have run rampant so far this season, topping the standings in the Premier League and Champions League while still competing for the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. Like most clubs of a certain stature, Arsenal also boast quite a few internationals on their roster, stretching the demand of their players even further.

It's a juggling act that most managers are eager to make, and Mikel Arteta is no different.

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A packed fixture list generally means your team have experienced some form of success, and winning breeds even more games as competitions wear on.

But success comes at a cost. Arsenal have been fortunate enough to call themselves one of the top Premier League sides for the past several years, but they have yet to break through and actually win the title under Arteta.

The Champions League is the same story: an appearance in last year's semi-finals is the furthest they advanced with Arteta at the helm.

A large reason for this is squad depth — simply put, Arsenal didn't have enough to deal with the demands of multiple competitions, and the Gunners would suffer more than their contemporaries whenever a key player or two would inevitably succumb to injury.

The North London side didn't have enough players of a certain standard to compete in both the Champions League and Premier League (not to mention the domestic cups), and instead of prioritising one over the other they simply failed at both.

This year feels different though, as Arteta and Co. have finally reached the tipping point in terms of squad depth, with multiple options at every position for the first time under the Spaniard. It's shown on the field, as the Gunners are one of just two sides to have won all three of their Champions  League games so far while also not conceding a single goal.

Add in their domestic play, where they have a similar defensive record while topping the Premier League, and Arsenal have yet to miss a beat.

Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Now, instead of scrambling to plug holes when key players such as Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and William Saliba are out, Arteta has the confidence to slot in the likes of Eberchi Eze, Mikel Merino and Cristhian Mosquera. If Bukayo Saka is forced to miss time, Noni Madueke is more than ready to step up in his place.

It's like that all over the roster, and now the prospect of increased fixtures is no longer a curse. Arteta can now face the challenge head-on.

"Every decision that we make in terms of a fixture has to be guided by two main things, I think: players' welfare and then supporters," Arteta said last week. 

"That’s it, and the rest has to come very, very far away from that, and we should never forget that principle."

With the team's holiday fixture list now finalised, squad rotation and depth come into even higher demand, as the run between now and the end of the calendar year will see the team play 13 matches across all competitions. However, with their new found strength in depth, Arsenal are well equipped to not only surivive a gruelling schedule, but to thrive in it.

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