Arsenal stars such as Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Piero Hincapie, Gabriel, William Saliba and Martin Zubimendi joined a host of players to pull out of international duty this week.
The Gunners, who are still on course to collect a treble this season, have seen several players return to North London as Arteta seemingly protects his players ahead of the return to club football this weekend.
What tactics is Arteta using?
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, Lineker suggested that Arteta is following tactics from serial winner Ferguson.
"Interestingly a couple of Arsenal players have pulled out of this squad now. Both (Bukayo) Saka and Declan Rice have gone. They joined people like (William) Saliba and Gabriel and one or two other players. I think Arteta is playing a Sir Alex role here.
"All managers have done that but generally it’s down to the players," Lineker added. "The manager would always pressure you to pull out of friendlies in particular. It happened to me a couple of times and on both occasions I said no chance."
Arsenal supporters have been left fretting over the fitness of key players but if Lineker is right, Arteta is resting many of them who have not had a break since the start of the campaign.
Manager Tuchel has reduced the squad to 27 players and this means Aaron Ramsdale, Fikayo Tomori and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have left the camp ahead of Tuesday’s friendly with Japan.