Sanchez will now likely miss several weeks of action with a hamstring injury after being played against Norwich City despite concerns to his fitness prior to the game. “The players are there to play football not to be rested when the press decided they need to be rested”.
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“We were the most risky team and we had the best chances”, said Mourinho, the Chelsea manager.
Arsenal, whose casualty list has been staggering this year, lost Koscielny after 10 minutes with a hip injury and, according to Wenger, a knee problem saw Cazorla playing “on one leg” in the later stages when Arsenal had run out of replacements.
Arsenal was in a good position on the half-hour after Alexis Sanchez sent Mesut Ozil through to clip the ball into the net.
Before Sunday’s game, Thierry Henry said he would have liked to have seen Wenger take Sanchez off when they were 3-0 up against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night.
Yet it is Arsenal sitting fourth in the Premier League – only two points behind front-runners Manchester City and Leicester – and Chelsea is 12 points further back in 14th place. “I fear that is not really the reality”.
Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck are still long-term absentees, along with midfielders Tomas Rosicky and Francis Coquelin.
Arsene Wenger defended his decision to play Alexis Sanchez at Norwich on Sunday – even though he saw the forward forced off through injury. He barely managed to get any rest after that, when he was thrown into the mix of the domestic season, playing nearly every game in the Premier League and in the Champions League.
The January window may not come soon enough for Wenger, but the Emirates chief will have to survive on his current crop for the time being, and Henry now sits among those scrutinising the tactician’s logic. Ramsey continued: “It was obviously a bit disappointing to go a goal up and to concede that goal was a bit disappointing from our view, but to be fair they did well and they deserved to get a point out of the game”.
The Gunners however suffered a setback in the 13th minute when reliable centre-back Koscielny suffered a hip injury and had to be replaced by Gabriel Paulista.
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And he added that Arsenal “need to try and bounce back so we are ready” when they host Sunderland, who have won their last two matches, on Saturday.
