Mikel Arteta has a starting XI problem at Arsenal which Pep Guardiola is schooling him at

Arsenal's substitution numbers raise confusing questions that Mikel Arteta must find the answer to

The sense has been that Mikel Arteta needs to better utilise his squad, rotate better, and manage games better. I have been banging a bit of a drum for a little while, wondering why the Arsenal boss has so often left substitutes on the bench, instead of using all five, resting players.

It got to the stage where it was better to sit down and crunch the numbers, and so that is exactly what my Monday morning consisted of. Across the 2025/26 Premier League season, Arteta has not used all five of his substitutes in 14 of his 32 matches, nearly half of the available games.

This averages out at around 4.34 substitutes used per match. Therefore, conclusively, this must be one of the reasons why Manchester City appear so much fitter and ready for the run-in, right?

Hold your horses. Taking a look at Pep Guardiola’s 31 league games this season, he has not used all five substitutes on 21 occasions – over half of the matches played in the Premier League this season.

Furthermore, on average, he uses 3.9 substitutes per game, meaning even fewer subs are being used by Guardiola than Arteta in each match. It left me scratching my head, and then you start to look at the impact substitutes are having on both coaches.

Arteta leads the league for managers with the most goal involvements from substitutes with 22 (11 goals). Pep Guardiola is 23rd, with three, and only one goal.

This leads to two realities. Arteta is getting more from the players coming off the bench, but Guardiola’s starting XI are doing the business for them more regularly.

No doubt that injuries have played their part for the Gunners. Arteta has needed to make 19 substitutions in the league due to players being injured in the game, whereas Guardiola has been forced into just nine.

Arteta was asked in December whether the intensity of training could be causing the injuries. He outright denied this.

“No, training no because we don't have time to train so training is not there but obviously the fact that you are missing players,” he replied. “You are loading other players more that's a consequence to that.

“And it's a really dangerous circle that one and on top of that we have some injuries that, okay, in terms of what happened in the past we are not having more injuries, the fact that we had some others that are long term that they haven't been with us since the beginning of the season but as well it's a test for the team and so far we have reacted very, very well to that.”

Yet, as Arsenal went into the game with Bournemouth, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino all missed out due to injury. While Eberechi Eze was not fit enough to start, Piero Hincapie was an unused substitute, having returned from a spell on the sidelines himself.

For City, while Nico O’Reilly might have suffered a problem during the game, which will be assessed this week, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol remain out with longer-term problems, as does John Stones, whose fitness has been a problem all season.

Guardiola's best players have been fit for most, if not all, of the season, and in January, the club invested further in Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi, the latter as a response to the injury issues they had suffered.

With days of the window remaining, Merino’s injury was not addressed; instead, Ethan Nwaneri was allowed to leave the club on loan to Marseille. Arteta desperately needs to find a tune with his players and for some of his biggest stars to return.

Yet it is that some stars have just played far more than others which is a bigger issue. Since returning from injury at the start of the season, Timber has played the 90 minutes on 23 out of 28 games since starting on matchday three.

Timber did not sound too optimistic post-match when speaking in the mixed zone while Arteta has been continuously coy over injury updates throughout the season. Zubimendi has completed 23 of his 32 Premier League appearances, having to be replaced in the last three games despite having to be recalled from the Spanish national side, having complained of knee pain.

Christian Norgaard, on the other hand, has played one hour of league action this season, as a player designed to be a number two to the defensive midfield role, it clearly isn't enough. Nico Gonzalez, brought in to be a support option for Rodri, has played more than 1300 minutes.

After the defeat to Bournemouth, Arteta almost sent a plea to those injured to push everything to return for what is a huge week for the Gunners against Sporting CP and Manchester City. But despite the substitution data, there are still signs much of this is his, and perhaps in part the recruitment team's, own doing.

“We need everything,” he said. “We need, first of all, we need everybody fit and available.

“So the ones that are not involved, the ones that are not with us, that are really big, important players, we need them immediately with us because then we're going to be much stronger.

“And then the other ones, they need to stand up. Me, the first one, and embrace this challenge and go for it. So today we have to suffer.

“It's painful. It's a terrible feeling. Tomorrow is a different day. And if somebody would have said to me in August, we are in this position right now in April, I'm sure we would all take it.”