Arsenal held by Norwich and rocked by Sanchez injury Arsenal’s title ambitions suffered a double-blow on Sunday as a draw at Norwich was compounded by an injury to Alexis Sanchez. He leads the top five leagues in assists with 11 and has become the first Premier League player to record at least one assist in seven consecutive games.
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And Henry was far from impressed with the performance of Arsene Wenger’s side, who were lucky to escape with a draw after Wes Hoolahan, Jonny Howson and Martin Olsson had chances to win the game for the hosts. Koscielny we will have to assess tomorrow, he has a hip problem.
Wenger insisted after the game that Sanchez had told him he was fit to play, but Henry believes the manager should have rested him anyway.
It finished 1-1, but at a heavy price for Arsenal with Koscielny and Sanchez injured, while Santi Cazorla also finished limping.
“He has said he got another kick on his hamstring but I fear that may not be the reality”. “When we play as a team and when, especially, we defend as a team, the team is much better”.
Wenger added: “On the injury front it was a bad afternoon for us”. We don’t need to worry about [the injuries to Alexis and Koscielny]. “What happened on the pitch was not a great experience but we need to try and bounce back so we are ready for the next game”.
Arsene Wenger has so far chosen the experienced Mathieu Flamini to stand in for Coquelin, but Dixon would like to see Gabriel moved into midfield. Per Mertesacker and Gabriel failed to step up when they should have, with Lewis Grabban foolishly played onside.
Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin both come back into contention for Arsenal but Wenger’s midfield resources continue to be decimated.
“But I think you nearly don’t have to ask him anything if you want to rest him”.
“At the end of the day management is about making decisions you think are right when everyone else thinks it is wrong”.
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Norwich caused a few problems with some early set-pieces and Ozil should have opened the scoring for Arsenal when he was picked out in the box by Nacho Monreal.
