Arsene Wenger willing to shoulder the blame for mounting Arsenal injuries
Arsene Wenger is willing to shoulder the blame for Arsenal's current injury crisis - but also pointed to an incident at Norwich that could have led to Alexis Sanchez's hamstring problem.
The Gunners lost Sanchez, Laurent Koscielny and Santi Cazorla during Sunday's 1-1 draw at Carrow Road, with Kieran Gibbs ruled out in the run-up to the game.
Cazorla is by far the worst of those fresh injury worries and Wenger conceded the Spain international could be out until March with knee trouble.
Questions had been asked in advance of the trip to Norfolk about the amount of football Sanchez had played without a break, with Wenger revealing that the Chile forward had felt his hamstring during the 3-0 Champions League victory over Dinamo Zagreb.
But Sanchez was deployed at Norwich only to pull up injured in the second-half and he will now miss the start of a busy festive period.
Wenger has a host of other first-team regulars on the treatment table, although Koscielny should be fit for Saturday's clash with Sunderland while Theo Walcott could return from a calf injury, and said he will take the blame for the number of players out.
"I'm not expert enough to know but if you want to blame me I'm okay with it," he said.
"We have tests as well, we have medical tests. We are quite sophisticated in testing our players. I had a chat with Alexis after his injury and he was adamant he felt perfect before the game because we tested his strength, stretching, all the signs we have we test every week were perfect.
"There was no obvious sign or alert before the game - it happened, do I have to take the blame? I do, but there was not an obvious mistake to select him before the game."
Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce has warned his players they are in a marathon and not a sprint as they attempt to drag themselves clear of relegation trouble.
The Black Cats eased themselves out of the drop zone last weekend after back-to-back victories over Crystal Palace and Stoke to hand their new manager three wins in his six games at the helm to date.
However, he has been at pains ever since to remind people that the job is far from done, and that fact is brought into sharp focus by a December fixture list which starts with a tough trip to the Emirates and also includes fixtures at Chelsea and Manchester City and Liverpool's visit to Wearside.
Allardyce said: "We have gone a long way towards trying to get out of the position we are in, but we have still an awful long way to go.
"At the minute, we have won the sprint, but we are in the marathon, don't forget, so we have still got a long way to go to pick up more and more points as quickly as possible.
"We have slightly helped and relieved the situation, but we are still in deep, deep relegation trouble that we have to make sure we get out of as quickly as we possibly can."
Sunderland have drawn 0-0 on three of their last trips to meet the Gunners, and memorably secured their top-flight status last season with the most recent of them.
They have made something of a habit of prospering against the big guns during tense conclusions at the end of the last three campaigns to fend off relegation, but Allardyce admits they cannot rely on similar heroics every year.
He said: "It's been done in the past here, I know, but that is the most difficult way to do it. Pick your points up against the teams in and around you in that bottom eight - that relieves the pressure when you play the Arsenals."
Source: PAR
