Unai Emery does not think his Arsenal players will be able to blame a hectic fixture schedule if they are knocked out of the Europa League by Rennes.
The Gunners drew their north London derby against Tottenham on Saturday while their French opponents were given the weekend off to aid their preparations for the last-16 first-leg encounter.
The French League postponed Saturday's game against Nimes to give Rennes extra time to prepare for Thursday's match at Roazhon Park.
Emery remains sanguine about his team's busy schedule though, saying: "It is not an excuse for us, we have the habit to play a lot of matches week by week. We played on Saturday, rested Sunday and started to work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday I think we are going to be okay to play every player. For us, it is a very important match.
"I respect the Premier League. They decide the schedules for our matches and we have adapted. Our adaptation is to prepare for the matches on the days we can have but, above all, our habit is to play a lot of matches during the week so it is no excuse."
Alexandre Lacazette is suspended for both legs against Rennes after being handed a three-game ban for his red card against BATE Borisov in the previous round.
Arsenal, 9/2 to win the Europa League outright, can be backed at 13/2 to beat Rennes 1-0 on Thursday while they are 8/1 to win the first leg from behind.
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Unai Emery does not think his Arsenal players will be able to blame a hectic fixture schedule if they are knocked out of the Europa League by Rennes.
The Gunners drew their north London derby against Tottenham on Saturday while their French opponents were given the weekend off to aid their preparations for the last-16 first-leg encounter.
The French League postponed Saturday's game against Nimes to give Rennes extra time to prepare for Thursday's match at Roazhon Park.
Emery remains sanguine about his team's busy schedule though, saying: "It is not an excuse for us, we have the habit to play a lot of matches week by week. We played on Saturday, rested Sunday and started to work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday I think we are going to be okay to play every player. For us, it is a very important match.
"I respect the Premier League. They decide the schedules for our matches and we have adapted. Our adaptation is to prepare for the matches on the days we can have but, above all, our habit is to play a lot of matches during the week so it is no excuse."
Alexandre Lacazette is suspended for both legs against Rennes after being handed a three-game ban for his red card against BATE Borisov in the previous round.
Arsenal, 9/2 to win the Europa League outright, can be backed at 13/2 to beat Rennes 1-0 on Thursday while they are 8/1 to win the first leg from behind.
Source: bet365.com