adminLONDON. — Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has reacted to Jose Mourinho’s claims that the Gunners have an easier fixture schedule and insisted they don’t have any say in their fixture list.
The Chelsea boss called on the FA to scrap FA Cup replays to ease fixture congestion for clubs involved in multiple competitions, adding that one alternative was “to get the same influence that Arsenal has on the fixtures and choose the days to play.”
Mourinho also claimed recently that, “his (Wenger’s) team always has the best days to play,” and the Arsenal manager reacted seemingly agitated with what many see as mind games by the Chelsea boss. “If you look at the fixtures and analyse it, with an objective view, you will see that Arsenal are behind all the other teams,” Wenger said. In the last five years, all the objective studies that have been made have shown that Arsenal have less rest than any other team at the top level in the top four. “That’s facts, nothing to do with my opinion.
An independent company has made that and shown that Arsenal have less rest than all the other teams at the top level.
“It’s not mind games, it’s opinions, but I don’t live with opinions, I live with facts. The facts are not depending on me, not depending on Mourinho, just on objective analysis.”
With Arsenal facing Liverpool (A, EPL), Manchester United (H, EPL), Liverpool (H, FA-Cup) and Bayern Munich (H, UCL) within 11 days in February, Wenger knows his side cannot afford to lose key players ahead of what looks certain to be a defining few weeks in their bid for major honours.
“What is important is that you don’t lose players from now until this period, that you have all the players available,” said Wenger. — AFP.
Online Reporter