Wenger wary of a potential slip-up on plastic pitch
Artificial surface means Welbeck will not feature We must be ready for a big fight, he warns
Arsène Wenger was leaving nothing to chance when it came to Sutton United’s plastic pitch last night, as he sought to avoid an FA Cup shock that would almost certainly end any prospect of him remaining at Arsenal.
Wenger admitted the artificial surface at Gander Green Lane was one of the primary dangers to his side’s hopes of rescuing their season, outlining the Gunners’ strategy of training indoors in order to acclimatise to it ahead of tonight’s fifth-round tie.
So concerned was Wenger about the pitch that Danny Welbeck, who would have been in line to continue his comeback from injury by starting this evening, was given a runout for the club’s under-23 team yesterday instead of being risked this evening.
It was therefore hard to see defender Laurent Koscielny featuring either, after he limped off during Wednesday’s 5-1 thrashing in the Champions League at Bayern Munich with a hamstring injury that needed a scan on Friday.
Admitting that even training indoors would not fully prepare his players for what awaits them tonight, Wenger said: “It is not the same because it [Arsenal’s] is a dry pitch and Sutton, I have heard, have a wet pitch, which they water before the game and is quicker.
“The weight on the joints is different and you cannot slide to block every time, so it makes football a bit different. The ball comes to you suddenly and accelerates and does not slow down like in a normal game, so we have to get used to the different speed.”
He said: “Ideally, we would like to play on a normal pitch, but it has been accepted and the competition is to deal with what you face. We will face an unusual pitch and we will have to deal with it.”
Welbeck, who starred on his first start of the season in Arsenal’s fourth-round demolition of Southampton last month, took to Twitter yesterday to confirm his unavailability, after continuing his comeback from a long-term knee injury. “Glad to get 70 minutes today to build up my match fitness,” he posted. “Plastic pitch at Sutton isn’t the best idea at the moment.”
As well as the pitch, Wenger said that Arsenal would have to cope with the “enthusiasm” of the FA Cup giant-killers, whose run to the fifth round has captured the imagination.
He also said that the Gunners would pay the price if they were “not ready for a big fight and subconsciously think that they are a nonLeague team,” but added: “That will not happen.”
Wenger had already indicated he would pick a strong side tonight, and was given every incentive to do so yesterday when the winners of the tie were drawn at home against the other non-League club left in the competition, Lincoln City.
His team could therefore include star striker Alexis Sánchez, who cut a frustrated figure once again at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday, and was given the rest of the week off to deal with a tax fraud court case in Barcelona.
Wenger suggested that the Chilean – who has stalled over signing a new contract – needed to look at his own performance before aiming critical glances at his team-mates.
“I do not want to comment individually, but we have lost as a team and Alexis is part of that,” the Arsenal manager said.
Wenger denied that the Bayern defeat would make Sánchez less likely to extend his contract at the club beyond next year, but admitted that his own future would be determined by results for the remainder of the season – starting tonight. The Frenchman last week announced that he would not retire this summer and would “definitely” manage elsewhere if he left Arsenal. But he also admitted that his preference was to stay with the Gunners rather than to take his first new job for more than 20 years. Asked what Arsenal’s players could do to help him decide to sign a new contract of his own, he said: “That will not depend on the players, it will depend on the results.”