Quote Originally Posted by PSRB View Post
Alongside the fact we have better players and as Ash says, they'd been pressing (and covering a considerable additional distance) for the whole game

I don't really see how it's that hard to fathom that an additional 24 hrs rest, especially over a congested period of football, must be of considerable benefit.
It is a benefit, no question. Considerable? That depends on your definition.

I didn't see a team with more energy take a 3 nil lead over a tired team. Had I seen that, I never would expect us to come back to 3-3 as we did.

I saw an unprepared team who lacked focus and who didn't seem to know how to handle a much less talented team pressing them. I saw two very good players (Bellerin and Mustafi) have off days one of whom (Mustafi) was just back from injury and hadn't played in the previous match. In fact, Hector has only just returned as well so I would expect him to be able to handle 2 games in 3 days, especially at his age. I saw some poor performances from players who have been poor too often (Ramsey, Iwobi) to merit a place in the team on a regular basis but who continue to get played anyway.

In short, I saw Arsenal of the past 10 years, not a team that dropped two points because they were tired.