Wenger: Now might not be the right time to rest Alexis

I think Wenger has been very lucky with the emergence of Francis Coquelin but now the young Gunner has picked up an injury and we have a problem.

However, Wenger believes the 24-year-old and Santi Cazorla are too attack-minded to play alongside one another in a central position. Who doesn’t love a bargain?

“What is most important is the quality of the player and, on that front, even for example we paid high money for Ozil and Alexis – the highest we’ve ever paid – but I don’t regret it for a second”. I can tell you I bought Patrick Vieira for £2.5m and it was a top bargain because he was a top-quality player – it would be hard to repeat these kind of buys now.

They head to Carrow Road having ended a three-game run without victory and, despite sitting fourth in the Premier League table, boast just two wins in six.

“I have seen that the turn of our results last season was when I went for a bit more stability and put Coquelin in there”.

“Coquelin has been absolutely fantastic but for me, they don’t have enough players who go that extra mile and do that little bit of dirty work”.

A player such as Bayer Leverkusen’s Lars Bender would be ideal, with Calciomercato (h/t Aaron Flanagan of the Daily Mirror) claiming the Gunners are weighing up a January move for the player.

Despite being widely criticised for the same travel arrangement previously, Arsenal do intend to again make the 14-minute flight to Norwich on Saturday from Luton Airport ahead of Sunday’s 4.15pm kick-off.

Chile playmaker Alexis Sanchez injured a hamstring in midweek but Wenger said it “might not be the best moment” to rest him.

“His resistance is remarkable”, Wenger said. We take the train or coach. Out: Jarvis (knee), Tettey (thigh).

Ozil and Sanchez were different.

Theo Walcott is pencilled out for a return next month while the likes of Danny Welbeck, Tomas Rosicky and Jack Wilshere are all due to return to training by the new year.

Stat: Mesut Ozil has laid on 11 goals this season.