Arsene Wenger put the disappointing 1-1 draw at Norwich down to fatigue as Mesut Ozil’s second league goal of the season was canceled out before half-time.
A point means it is two out of a possible nine following games against Tottenham Hotspur, West Brom and the Canaries, but crucially it was a missed opportunity to join Manchester City and Leicester City level on points at the top of the table.
Wenger spoke to the press after the game at Carrow Road and suggested that tiredness was a factor in allowing the home side to get back into the game having taken the lead.
It was a difficult game. We played against a Norwich side that was at the top level physically and focused. They were well organised and they played every time with 10 players in their own half.
Maybe the turning point of the game was maybe we dropped a little bit after scoring straight away and allowed them back into the game. In the second half I felt we had to dig deep to get through as we were a bit jaded and we lost players.
[Santi] Cazorla played on one leg and of course we played [Laurent] Kosicelny at the start of the game so it was, I would say, a fair point for Norwich and it was on the injury front a bad afternoon for us.
Unfortunately, it’s an all too familiar tale. Losing Cazorla in an already depleted midfield and his best defender in Koscielny for a long period isn’t ideal, but to lose Alexis Sanchez will be devastating.
It looks bleak on that front as the Chilean had to be replaced in the second half for a hamstring problem. With injuries mounting up in typical fashion, he is someone Wenger can ill-afford to be without – and the initial diagnosis isn’t promising.
He says it is a kick on his hamstring. I fear the reality is worse than that. We checked him [during the week] and when you have no force and no middle stretch in your hamstring then there is no problem and he had that.
Wenger went on to defend his decision to play the 26-year-old despite admitting prior to the game he had a slight issue.
The players are there to play football and not to be rested when the press decides they need to be rested. Nobody is scientifically developed enough, not even the press, to predict exactly when a guy would be injured. I must say that with all humility we are not position to predict that, despite all our test he looked alright.
The injury sustained by Cazorla is a “kick on the knee” which got worse during the game and Koscielny was “unable to move at all” following a kick on the hip.
Arsenal return to the Emirates for their next Premier League fixture up against a resurgent Sunderland.
We had a bad spell of a few games now with Tottenham, West Brom and today we only have taken two points but we are still not far and going through a bad spell and not being far. It is not enough but at least we have an opportunity to come back.
