Arsenal boss Unai Emery claims he doesn’t like not playing at the weekend, having arranged for his side to play a training ground game on Thursday.
The Gunners are due to host Leicester City on Monday at the Emirates Stadium, over two weeks since their last competitive clash against Fulham.
However Emery was not willing to wait that long to see his players back in action, choosing to field returning internationals to check on their conditional.
Talking in his pre-match press conference, Emery said:
I prefer to play Saturday or Sunday.
It [playing on Monday] has the advantage of having more time to prepare for the match – that’s one positive.
But after, we are going to play Thursday [against Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League], and we are going to play Sunday also [against Crystal Palace], two matches very quickly after Leicester.
Freddie Ljungberg led a youthful side against Emery’s senior squad, where every available first-team squad member played a part. Emery continued:
The game against Leicester is very big and very difficult.
Leicester are a very good team and play with a clear identity under Claude Puel.
They are very competitive, have very good players and we need every single player, and our mentality together to be stronger than in the last match.
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