Pochettino gives little away over the future of Alderweireld
MANCHESTER City stars do not need to be afforded the extra protection called for by manager Pep Guardiola, according to Arsene Wenger.
Wenger’s Arsenal meet City in tomorrow’s Carabao Cup final with Guardiola going in search of his first piece of silverware in English football.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has been left fuming on more than one occasion after seeing his players hit by a string of dangerous challenges in recent months.
Leroy Sane was forced off at Cardiff having been fouled by Joe Bennett, who was only cautioned but later offered an apology to the Germany international for what was a crude tackle.
Kevin de Bruyne received similar treatment from Jason Puncheon of Crystal Palace while youngster Brahim Diaz was hit by a knee-high challenge from West Brom’s Matt Phillips — with both opposing players picking up bookings as a result.
Those decisions formed part of a letter which Manchester City sent to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body responsible for referees, reporting a total of nine challenges they felt had not been sufficiently punished.
Guardiola spoke after Sane picked up an injury in the challenge from Bennett in an FA Cup tie last month and called for players to be better protected.
But Wenger, who has been resting star man Mesut Ozil amid an illness in preparation for tomorrow’s clash, believes officials must simply apply the letter of the law rather than offering any extra protection.
“I don’t know what it means,” he said when asked about Guardiola’s comments. “Protection yes, but we just want the referees to respect the rule book.
“It is all in the rules, we don’t need any extra protection. You want the referees to make the right decision, that’s all.
“Pep is maybe concerned by one or two situations where his players were tackled against Wigan on Monday night, which I can understand.
“But you don’t want extra protection, you want protection and that is just by the referee making the right decisions in the situations.”
Wenger has never won the League Cup but can complete a full set of major domestic honours, adding to his three Premier League titles and record seven FA Cup triumphs, with victory this weekend.
Defeats in the 2007 and 2011 finals are the closest he has come to date but he is hoping it will be third time lucky this weekend.
“When you get to a final, you want to win it,” he said.
“It’s true that I always used to play this competition with a youth team. For us it’s an opportunity. We’ll play with all the regular players.
“We go to Wembley and you want to win it, you want your fans to go home happy.”
Preparations for the final were not ideal as a much-changed Arsenal lost 2-1 to Swedish side Ostersunds in the Europa League on Thursday night — although they have still progressed into the next round with a 4-2 aggregate win.
The Gunners will now face AC Milan in the last-16 of the continental competition.
Wenger has been boosted by Aaron Ramsey’s recovery from a groin injury which puts him in contention to return, while Ozil should fully shake off his illness to be involved and club-record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is available having been ineligible in the Europa League. TOTTENHAM manager Mauricio Pochettino refuses to be drawn into discussing the future of defender Toby Alderweireld but says the defender is likely to miss Sunday’s game at Crystal Palace through injury.
The 28-year-old has played only twice since the turn of the year due to a hamstring problem he sustained in the Champions League victory over Real Madrid on November 1.
Pochettino revealed Alderweireld felt discomfort in the same area during training on Thursday and could now be left out of the Premier League trip to Selhurst Park.
“I think it was only Toby (on Thursday) who could not finish the training session,” the Argentinian said.
“He suffered a small incident in the same leg (as the hamstring injury), but we are going to assess him (on Friday and Saturday).
“We will see if he is available for training and if possible be selected for the weekend.”
Yesterday, a number of reports suggested Spurs were ready to cash in on Alderweireld this summer.
The north London club have the option to extend the former Atletico Madrid defender’s contract by a year, taking it to 2020, but if they do so it would trigger a clause allowing him to leave for a set fee in 2019.
To avoid that, Spurs could instead look to sell, but Pochettino insists he has nothing to do with such matters.
“I am not involved in negotiation,” he said. “I never talk about rumours, what the media say or what happens around the club. It is not my job and I cannot say anything about that.”