John Obi Mikel believes Arsenal are better than any other team in Europe in one specific area.
Andrea Berta spent £250 million on eight players over the summer, in an attempt to provide Mikel Arteta with a deep squad that can compete on multiple fronts.
Thus far, the Gunners have endured a mixed start to the new campaign, winning every single match across all competitions, barring their showdowns with Liverpool and Manchester City.
Arteta’s team sit five points behind the Merseysiders at the top of the league, after five matches.
John Obi Mikel says Arsenal have the best squad in Europe
Arsenal now have at least two quality players in every single position.
Arteta has an abundance of different options at his disposal, and even with injuries to Noni Madueke, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, he will name an extremely strong bench against Newcastle on Sunday.
Steve Sidwell thinks Arteta might have too many options, and it is possible that the squad harmony could be threatened by the amount of competition for minutes.
Obi Mikel does not share Sidwell’s sentiments, claiming Arsenal’s squad is the best in the English top flight, as well as in Europe.
“He’s done so well,” the former Chelsea midfielder said on the Obi One Podcast.
“Mikel Arteta, he’s built a good, good squad, the strongest squad in the Premier League. Not just in the Premier League, I might say, you know, in Europe right now. Arsenal, in terms of depth, their squad is complete. There is no excuse for not winning the Premier League.”
Mikel Arteta must keep everyone in Arsenal’s squad happy
The issue with having so much depth is that players can grow restless if they’re not playing the minutes they’d have expected.
Certain players aren’t even going to make matchday squads when everyone is fit and available, and this can be a difficult dynamic for a coach to manage.
Arteta needs to ensure that the squad remain happy, and he can only do this by handing out appropriate minutes.
The point of building such a deep squad is to trust everyone in it to start important games and to rotate freely between them.
Thus far, he’s rotated somewhat, but still not quite to the level that will be sufficient to keep everyone happy across the whole season.
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