Arsene Wenger claims his new-look Arsenal team are not ready for the start of new season.
Following their Community Shield win over Manchester City last Saturday, the Gunners kick off their Barclays Premier League campaign against managerless Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Gunners have spent £60million on fresh talent this summer, with Alexis Sanchez, Mathieu Debuchy and Calum Chambers all arriving.
But Arsenal are faced with an testing start to the season, given they face a crucial two-legged Champions League qualifier against Besiktas – the first of which is on Tuesday.
And Wenger insists his side are not at their optimum going into the new campaign.
He said: ‘Honestly we are a bit short in our preparation because after the World Cup, we had 11 players at the World Cup and many of them had longer holidays after that.
‘I think this year, the final of the World Cup was on July 13, the start of the league is August 16, if you want to give some holiday to the players your preparation becomes very short.
‘I think we could have done with one week later for all the competitions, the Champions League and the Premier League.
‘If you don’t give players enough holiday or enough build-up in their preparation and play them straight away then they get injured.’
Per Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski will not be considered for Saturday’s clash as they only reported back for pre-season training on Monday following Germany’s World Cup success. Mertesacker has retired from international football, aged 29.
Wenger will make a late call on whether to include Laurent Koscielny, who is struggling with an Achilles problem, against Palace given the first clash against Besiktas is just four days away.
Wenger also admitted that his new captain Mikel Arteta must accept the club’s policy of offering 12 month contracts to over 30s.
Arteta is out of contract at the end of the season and Wenger said: ‘You know the policy. Nobody accepts it but ideally you want to sign at 75 for one more year.
‘He is a strong personality, Mikel Arteta. I don’t really doubt that he will extend his contract but at the moment it is not done.’
Source: Daily Mail