Mikel Arteta called on footballers to have more rest between matches after Declan Rice became the latest Arsenal player to suffer an injury.
Rice put in another huge performance in the Gunners’ 2-0 win over Brentford, but limped off with 10 minutes left with what appeared to be a calf problem.
Goals from Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka extended their unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions with an eighth straight home win and stretched the gap at the top back to five points.
However the Gunners, already without first-choice centre-halves Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba through injury, were dealt a blow when another one, Cristhian Mosquera, limped off just before half-time.
With his side having played Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Chelsea over the past week, Arteta took the opportunity to give a rest to Saka, Jurrien Timber and Eberechi Eze against the Bees.
But with yet more injury headaches ahead of the Saturday lunchtime trip to Aston Villa, Arteta questioned the Premier League fixture schedule.
“Rest, that’s quite a positive word to use – we had to make some changes,” he said. “We had a very demanding week at every level. We were asked to play three days later, with one less recovery (day) than them.
“Obviously it’s never good news. Declan had to come off. We don’t know. We have to see tomorrow what he’s got. He can walk. He cannot play. The thing is, he’s played a lot of minutes but as well, now we played Wednesday night and we have to play Saturday morning as well.
“We can play minutes but if they can please give us just a little more time to recover and to make the welfare of these players a little bit easier, that would be great.”
Arteta’s changes worked almost immediately with fit-again Noni Madueke and forgotten man Ben White combining down the right after 11 minutes.
White, making his first Premier League appearance since the opening day, collected Madueke’s flick around the corner and stood up an inviting cross which Merino emphatically headed home.
Brentford were inches from equalising from a corner when Gunners goalkeeper David Raya, facing his former club, spectacularly tipped Kevin Schade’s header on to the crossbar.
Saka, on as a sub after an hour, made the points safe in stoppage time when Bees keeper Caoimhin Kelleher got a hand to his shot but was unable to prevent it looping into the net.
It was a fifth defeat in six away matches for Brentford and boss Keith Andrews said: “Plans don’t always work out.
“We conceded an early goal and we should have done better with that. After that I felt they didn’t have too many clear-cut opportunities and we grew into the game and made it uncomfortable for them.
“We gave a good account of ourselves and I’m proud of the performance.”
additional reporting by PA
