KEY POINTS

  • Wenger has played a different team in the league and cup competitions his season.
  • The fringe players along with youth-team stars made up the team for Europa League and EFL Cup.

Arsene Wenger is hoping that Arsenal's rotation policy will keep them on good stead going into what is one of the busiest periods of the Premier League campaign.

The Gunners play 13 times in the next six weeks with Europa League and EFL Cup games interspersed between a busy league schedule.

Wenger has opted to use the entire depth of his squad thus far this campaign and has even promoted a number of players from the Arsenal Under-23 squad for the cup competitions.

The French coach effectively has had two teams, one for the Premier League and another for the cup competitions. Rarely have players from the starting XI from each team overlapped, which has given all the players ample rest between games.

And Wenger believes that it could prove to be a massive advantage going into festive period when Arsenal are likely to be playing almost every three days in the coming weeks. Moreover, Arsenal have been boosted on the injury front with Santi Cazorla the only long-term absentee at the moment, all the others are available or back in training.

Wenger believes the rotation policy will not only help physically but also mentally as the manager believes the latter plays an important role to remain consistent in the Premier League. The Gunners begin their hectic schedule with a trip to Turf Moor to take on the in-form Burnley, who are currently in sixth place.

"We should benefit from the fact that we can rotate a lot in the Europa League and in the Premier League. Everybody's back and available now basically, so hopefully we can take advantage of that because the schedule is absolutely tremendous," Wenger said during his pre-match briefing, as quoted on Arsenal's official site.

"You sometimes demand that you can just have a breather because it's not only physical, it's more mental. You need to find the mental resources every time to be up for it in the Premier League. That is so demanding and that's why we should benefit from it," the French coach added.

Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger is hopeful Arsenal's rotation policy will help them during busy festive period fixture schedule Getty