Arsene Wenger Refuses To Take Blame For Alexis Sanchez Injury

Arsene Wenger could have been forgiven for being downbeat about Arsenal’s title chances after a draw against Norwich City – and the loss of Alexis Sanchez and Laurent Koscielny to injury.

The Arsenal boss said Sanchez suffered “a little hamstring alarm” after scoring twice in Tuesday’s 3-0 win Champions League over Dinamo Zagreb. I thought he showed his quality there and I’m really pleased he got his goal.

“The players are there to play football and not to be rested and not for the press to decide if they need to be rested”, Wenger replied when asked about Sanchez’s injury in his post-match press conference. Before the draw at Norwich they were already without Kieran Gibbs (calf), Jack Wilshere (hairline fracture of his left leg), Danny Welbeck (knee), Theo Walcott (calf), Francis Coquelin (knee), Mikel Arteta (calf) and Tomas Rosicky (knee).

Despite seeing Sanchez hobble off, Wenger said he had no reason to rest one of his key players for a game in which, had they won, Arsenal would have drawn level with Manchester City and Leicester at the top of the Barclays Premier League table.

Arsene Wenger admitted after the game he was fearing the worst and it seems those concerns were well placed as the Mirror claim Sanchez has been ruled out for at least three weeks.

“Obviously we can do it, but also it’s not going to be easy because it is a good team and it is going to be a great atmosphere over there, but I think we have the team spirit to do it”. “You need to go out and say nothing or, ‘I’m resting you today and that’s the way it is”.

“When [Cazorla] was down he got a kick on the knee”. We checked it, when you have normal force and normal stretch usually that means there is no problem.

Arsenal have a week before their next fixture, at home to Sunderland, but will also be concerned with the looming prospect of a trip to Athens next Wednesday. “I would say it was a fair point for Norwich but, on the injury front, it was a bad game for us”.

Henry believes the game against Dynamo Zagreb last week was an opportunity for Wenger to give Sanchez a small rest. “It looks to me like a fair result”, he said.

With Champions League qualification still hanging by a fine thread, injuries to Sanchez, Cazorla and Koscielny would serve a huge psychological blow to the Gunners. Koscielny we will have to assess tomorrow, he has a hip problem.