Manchester City v Arsenal: Mikel Arteta hits out at fixture schedule over limited recovery time for Gunners Arsene Wenger's team only returned from a draining trip to Naples at 4am yesterday morning and must now travel to Manchester today ahead of an early kick-off tomorrow at 12.45pm for a match that is being screened live on BT Sport. City, by contrast, had the advantage of playing on Tuesday against Bayern Munich and were also able to rotate seven of their first-team regulars, including Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and Alvaro Negredo. While those players have had a full week to rest and focus on the chance to cut Arsenal's five point lead at the top of the Premier League, the preparations for Wenger's team will simple revolve around trying to recover physically. The combined BT and Sky broadcast deal is worth more than £3 billion over three years to Premier League clubs, with BT paying £738 million for their share of the rights. Arsenal will also receive a £750,000 facility fee for having their game broadcast live tomorrow. The fixtures for each season are established after taking into account representations from clubs, the police and local authorities, as well as all the various Fifa and Uefa dates. That information is then programmed into a fixture computer that produces the schedule. From there, the various rights packages that have been purchased by Sky and BT allow the television companies to move games to either 12.45pm or 5.15pm on a Saturday, 1pm or 4pm on a Sunday and 8pm on a Monday. The Premier League's only influence beyond that is a request that teams have at least 48 hours between matches, meaning clubs playing in the Europa League on a Thursday would not then be a selected for a television game on a Saturday. Arsenal, along with the other 19 clubs, were among those who signed up to these arrangements for scheduling and the lucrative selling of broadcast rights. Despite their unhappiness at the schedule, Arteta said that the team could not use it as an excuse tomorrow and that they were hoping to send what he called a "big statement" to the rest of the Premier League. "We have to be ready, no excuses," he said. We want to win there and we have to be prepared. We know it can be a big statement if we get a good result there. Arteta also outlined his anger at missing the first leg of Arsenal's tie in the last 16 of the Champions League after being sent off against Napoli on Wednesday for two bookable offences. "It was a joke, a joke," said Arteta. Two fouls in the game and two yellow cards. I'm very disappointed. I think it was harsh and very unfair. Arteta felt that his dismissal had unsettled the team. "They scored a few minutes before and from then it was always going to be difficult," he said. They made 18 or 20 fouls in the first half, I make two in the whole game. It's not fair. Arsenal, meanwhile, are hopeful that Bacary Sagna will return from his hamstring injury for tomorrow's match at Manchester City.