Mikel Arteta Calls for Immediate Expansion of Matchday Squads
Mikel Arteta is not whispering his concerns behind closed doors anymore. He is pleading, publicly and pointedly, for the Premier League to move – and to move now.
On the eve of Arsenal’s clash with Aston Villa, the Spaniard renewed his call for an immediate expansion of matchday squads, insisting the issue has gone beyond tactics or selection headaches. For him, it is about what he calls “the safety of the players”.
At present, managers can name nine substitutes, an increase from the pre-pandemic limit of seven. Arteta wants that ceiling lifted again. Not next year. Not after another review. This season.
His argument is simple and, in his view, obvious: elite clubs are carrying squads far larger than 20 outfield players to cope with the relentless churn of domestic and international fixtures. Yet every matchday, someone stays at home. Sometimes several. And not fringe academy hopefuls, but established names.
This season he has already had to cut the likes of Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus from his matchday group. Those are not routine omissions. They are seismic calls in a dressing room full of internationals who expect, at the very least, to be in the stadium on a matchday.
Arteta believes that is where the damage starts.
“That is why I have been begging Premier League officials to extend those numbers just for the safety of the players, which is the most important thing,” he said, laying bare his frustration at operating within rules he feels no longer match the modern schedule.
He wants the option to include everyone. To avoid the weekly ritual of telling a fully fit player he is not even allowed to pull on the tracksuit and sit on the bench.
“I think every team needs more than 20 players on the pitch, ideally, to maintain the level of demand in the international matches we face, but these are the rules, and within these rules, we have to play,” he continued.
The tension lies in those “difficult” conversations he says are becoming a regular, unwelcome part of his job. Explaining to a senior professional that he will be watching from his sofa rather than from the dugout cuts against everything Arteta believes a squad should feel like.
“We need to be very close to the players to explain those situations in the right way, so that everyone feels their importance, because they will indeed be important,” he said. He knows that at some point in a long season, almost every player is called upon. Being told, in the meantime, that they are surplus to requirements on a given weekend chips away at that sense of belonging.
Arteta insists this is not a manager’s vanity project. He wants the question turned back on the dressing rooms around the league.
“The question should be put to the players more than anyone else,” he said. “What do they want? If they say: no, I would rather stay at home, then we will have a problem because they will not like what they are doing.”
He does not expect that answer. He is convinced that if the players were polled, the response would be almost unanimous.
“I am sure that if you ask the players, everyone would want to be part of the team on matchday, otherwise you would have to tell one of them that he is not even part of the matchday squad. That is extremely hard. And it will not benefit anyone.”
For Arteta, this is where the debate moves from the abstract to the tangible. A player left out entirely cannot influence the game, cannot be assessed under real pressure, and cannot feel truly woven into the fabric of the campaign.
“This does not benefit the club, nor does it benefit the assessment of the player, nor does it help them feel part of it. In my opinion, it is a real problem and it has a very simple solution,” he said.
The solution, in his eyes, is obvious: raise the limit, open the bench, and let managers carry the full weight of their squads into battle. The Premier League now has a choice to make – stick with tradition, or listen to one of its leading coaches as the demands on players climb higher with every passing season.
