Wenger – It was NOT a mistake to play Alexis

Arsenal are preparing to face Sunderland today without their star player, Alexis Sanchez, who sustained a hamstring injury in last weeks draw with Norwich. Arsene Wenger was severely criticized by the fans as Alexis has had many scares in recent weeks and obviously needed the rest.

Wenger told the media that Sanchez had told him he felt fine to play, and he was then asked if he always used the players judgement. “Yes, but we have tests as well, we have medical tests.” he said. “We are quite sophisticated in testing our players. I had a chat with Alexis after his injury and he was adamant he felt perfect before the game because we tested his strength, stretching, all the signs we test every week were perfect. There was no obvious sign or alert before the game – it happened, do I have to take the blame? I do, but there was not an obvious mistake to select him before the game.”

I don’t know, honestly. Alexis is a hamstring [injury] but I don’t know how long it will take, it is usually a quick one to recover. Cazorla we don’t know until he sees a specalist. There is no news on that.

But le Boss also admitted that he also listens to the players in some cases. “It happens in extreme circumstances. If you ask me when you play a cup final, you don’t listen too much to the players because they are all ‘fit’! But in normal situations, sometimes you have to get the feeling from the player because at the end of the day you have to trust them.”

Well whoever is to blame, we are now going to have to do without him for at least a month, as well as Santi Cazorla who was injured just after half-time, but Wenger kept him on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes. Now he is out for four months! Things are ot good at Arsenal at the moment. We are running out of players!