Arsene Wenger will hopefully not have to look for any reasons why Arsenal do not win away against relegation threatened Sunderland tomorrow, as we really need a good performance and the right result from the lads to go back above Man City and take a step closer to ensuring that we have a place in the Champions League next season and do not have the stress and inconvenience of a play off.
But if the Gunners do fail to take all three points home from the Stadium of Light then there is one excuse that the boss has already ruled out. As reported by Sky Sports, Wenger rejected any suggestions that Arsenal will be at a disadvantage because we only have two full days to recover after playing on Thursday night in a rearranged game against West Brom.
Even though our opponents will have had eight days between games the Arsenal boss insisted that this would not be a problem or at least that there was no good reason for it to be. He will surely be expecting a fully commited performance from Sam Allardyce’s side but he expects the same from Arsenal and pointed to our win over Everton in the early Saturday start after playing in Barcelona on a Wednesday night as an example.
The Frenchman said, “Between Thursday and Sunday and Wednesday and Saturday morning is exactly the same.
“You know we played on Wednesday night at Barcelona and then on Saturday against Everton at 12.45pm.
“It’s no problem. In fact, there’s a very interesting study that has come out from UEFA that shows that the points taken by the teams three days later are not less than after four or five days.
“It’s the opposite and that is quite interesting. The study has been made in all the five best leagues in Europe. Nobody has proven that it is a disadvantage to have only three days rest.
“The points on average are better than after four or five days.”
That is interesting and I also like the fact that Wenger has already removed one possible excuse for any poor performances from the Arsenal players. Is he finally getting tough with them after they let him down once again this season?