Football: Wenger Rues Fixture Pile-up After Arsenal Escape
Zeeshan Mehtab Published January 04, 2017 | 04:25 PM
BOURNEMOUTH, United Kingdom, Jan 4, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 04th Jan, 2017 ) - A despairing Arsene Wenger insisted Arsenal were put at a major disadvantage before his side staged an epic escape in their dramatic 3-3 draw at Bournemouth.
Charlie Daniels, Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser gave Bournemouth a shock 3-0 lead at Dean Court on Tuesday before Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez and Olivier Giroud netted to complete a stunning fightback.
But Gunners boss Wenger blamed his team's sluggish start on an extra 24 hours preparation for Bournemouth, who played Saturday, as opposed to Arsenal, who beat Crystal Palace 2-0 only 48 hours prior to this game.
And he suggested that Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny, Gabriel and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were not fully fit to play in a match that left Arsenal eight points behind leaders Chelsea, who have a game in hand at Tottenham on Wednesday.
"It was a physical test and a mental test," said Wenger. "Congratulations to them but, as well, it is too uneven to have only two days to play against a team who had over three days' rest. "Hector Bellerin had a knock, was uncertain to play, that is the problem when you had 48 hours.
We had three or four players who we had to wait on till the warm-up. "Koscielny, Gabriel, I did not start Oxlade-Chamberlain as I could not take a gamble with him. It complicates the job a lot but we have to shut up and cope with it.
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