Football
Arsene Wenger has
rejected claims that a training ground bust-up between Alexis Sanchez and an
unnamed Arsenal teammate led to his omission from the starting line-up that
lost 3-1 to Liverpool on Saturday.
The Independent
revealed on Sunday evening that Wenger decided to leave Sanchez out of the side
that started the Premier League encounter at Anfield due to disciplinary
reasons, with the Gunners going 2-0 down before Wenger decided to bring the
forward on at half-time.
Wenger claimed after
the match that he made the decision to leave the Chile international out on a
tactical basis as he wanted his side to play more direct with Olivier Giroud
and Danny Welbeck leading the attack, and despite Sunday’s revelations offering
a different reason for the Arsenal manager dropping his top goalscorer this
season, Wenger was sticking with his original story.
Asked if he could now
confirm the disciplinary issue, Wenger said: “I’m not aware of it. Nothing
happened.”
Wenger was pushed to
clarify if he could dismiss the reports, despite widespread knowledge of a row
between Sanchez and one of his teammates that not only led to Sanchez walking
out on a training session last week but a continued argument in the changing
room at the club’s London Colney base, and he added: “Yes, completely false,
but I understand that you have to feed the newspapers and we respect that.
“When you lose these
games, it’s not always down to these stories, and we accept that.”
Wenger also said that
his relationship with Sanchez remains “honest and normal”, but refused to
clarify that Sanchez will remain at Arsenal next season as the club will decide
his future given he has just 15 months left on his contract.
“He has 15 months left on his contract,”
Wenger said. “The decision will depend completely on Arsenal football club.”
Credit: www.independent.co.uk
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