Arsenal assess Sanchez fitness for Norwich

Arsenal won their second game in the Champions League this year and also benefit from the loss of Olympiacos to Bayern Munich.

“We needed to do the job and Bayern Munich needed to do the job and they did that well”.

Wenger is now without a host of first-team names with the likes of Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck, Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta out injured while Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are only just returning to action. Then of course I couldn’t take Sanchez off. We now have five days to recover anyway.

“What we wanted was to come out of this game with a chance to qualify”, he said.

Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg extended their winning streak in the Champions League to five games with a 2-0 win over Spanish high-flyers Valencia, thanks to goals from Oleg Shatov and Artem Dzyuba.

However, speaking in a press conference ahead of this weekend’s Premier League clash with strugglers Norwich City, Wenger confirmed that he has no intentions of resting Sanchez, despite him carrying an a minor hamstring injury. “It was an unlucky day, that can happen in a season but after it is how you respond to that and we did that well on Tuesday”.

Wenger was delighted with Sanchez’s latest masterclass and he claimed he had no qualms about leaving the Chile forward on even when the result was long since decided.

A normal player might well be exhausted, having traversed the Atlantic the previous week to play two gruelling World Cup qualifiers, but the Arsenal manager is still astonished at the way he can shake off the effects of football and travel to operate at a high level for the Gunners.

Wenger said: “We are in a position where we want to do something. Of course it is vital to score the first goal”. For us the task has one advantage, it is very clear.

Despite Chelsea’s travails in the Premier League-the defending champions lie 15th-they have fared slightly better in the Champions League, most recently beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 4-0 on Tuesday.

“We spent almost £40m on Ozil and I still consider him a bargain because the player is top quality”. I think I can but now it is my job to prove it. Fitness is hard to maintain.