Arsenal defender insists they will not be jaded against Fulham
Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos insists his team will be ready for their match at Fulham despite their long-haul Europa League jaunt.
The Gunners completed a 5,000-mile round-trip to beat Qarabag 3-0 in Baku on Thursday night and touched down back in England just 56 hours before their midday Premier League clash at Craven Cottage.
Head coach Unai Emery somewhat surprisingly opted to take a strong 21-man squad to Azerbaijan, with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Granit Xhaka among the party.
But Sokratis, who scored his first goal for the club to open the scoring against Qarabag, is not preparing any excuses as Arsenal look to extend their winning run to nine matches in all competitions at Fulham’s expense.
“It is not difficult,” he said of the quick turnaround.
“If you work hard – we work a lot and we progress all the time – we can cope with a lot of things. It is good that our coach tries a lot of things – good for the players.
“I think we will be ready. We have all the staff who work very well after the game and I hope we will be fit for Sunday. It is very important – we need to win. It is very important for us to win and give everything.”
