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Mikel Arteta has said he had to rotate his Arsenal team for the FA Cup fifth-round tie at Mansfield Two due to multiple first-team players \u201ccarrying issues\u201d with fatigue.<\/p>\n
Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori were two established players who did start in the 2-1 win, but both were forced off with knocks in each half.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of them had little niggles,\u201d Arteta said after the match. \u201cThey were not comfortable to continue. And I knew that this could be a possibility, especially in the conditions that we\u2019re playing today. So we had to take them off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trossard\u2019s injury was not clear, but Calafiori seemed to have a hamstring issue after twisting quickly to clear a loose ball.<\/p>\n
Arteta made nine changes to the team that started Arsenal\u2019s Premier League win over Brighton & Hove Albion.<\/p>\n
Arsenal handed starts to Max Dowman and Marli Salmon, both aged 16, while 18-year-old defender Jaden Dixon came on as a substitute in the closing stages to make his debut.<\/p>\n
Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, David Raya and Gabriel are four of Arsenal six most used players in all competitions and were not included in the matchday squad.<\/p>\n
Asked whether they were carrying issues or if the decision was solely to rest them, the Arsenal manager said: \u201cWell, they had issues and they\u2019ve been carrying issues. And the amount of games that we are playing, it\u2019s obviously super demanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was the only time to try to make sure that we can clean those issues that they\u2019re having to start the next sequence of two weeks before the break in the best possible way. And we had to make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s next match is the Champions League last-16 first leg away to Bayer Leverkusen, where the players will be expected to return.<\/p>\n
Arteta\u2019s side then return to Premier League action against Everton at home on March 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Mar 7, 2026<\/time><\/p>\nConnections: Sports Edition<\/h2>\n Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n
Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\nPlay today’s puzzle<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon Super \/ AFP via Getty Images March 7, 2026 10:35 am EST Mikel Arteta has said he had to rotate his Arsenal team for the FA Cup fifth-round tie … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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