Mikel Arteta will not sacrifice Europa League for Premier League title chase

Mikel Arteta will not sacrifice the Europa League to help Arsenal win a first top-flight title since 2004, even though he says a renewed Thursday-to-Sunday schedule will alter how he manages his squad.

Arsenal hold a realistic hope of challenging in Europe even if their last-16 assignment, revealed on Friday to be Sporting, should present a challenge. But they are inching closer to a remarkable domestic triumph and Arteta, who has been reluctant to tweak his team overly for league games and fielded relatively strong lineups for the Europa League group stage during the autumn, was asked whether he would be compelled to prioritise.

“We will try to pick, all the time, the team we believe is the best to win on the day,” he said. “Because if you do something different people will say: ‘Why did you pick this team and we didn’t win in the Europa League?’ You’re never going to win that battle. We’re going to pick the players that are in the best possible condition, because it’s really important to win the game to be in a better condition to win the next one.”

The first leg against Sporting, which will bring a reunion with the former Arsenal right-back Héctor Bellerín, will take place in Lisbon on 9 March and the return a week later. Should Arsenal progress to the final, they will have handled six Thursday night assignments between March and mid-May. Such a schedule will change the dynamic of how Arteta works.

“A lot,” he said. “We’re going to have much less time to train and recover. I’m sure we’re going to have to share many more minutes around the squad, which is great because we’re going to have to give opportunities to everyone.”

Maintaining, or even increasing, their two-point lead over Manchester City is overwhelmingly