TV companies help Chelsea but never Arsenal, claims Arsene Wenger

 
GETTY
James Olley17 April 2014

Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal have never benefitted from the same help that Chelsea have received from the Premier League and television companies in their bid to win the Champions League.

This weekend’s match between the Gunners and Hull was moved from Saturday to Sunday in a swap with the Blues’ fixture against Sunderland in a bid to give Jose Mourinho’s side extra time to recover before next Tuesday’s European semi-final first leg against Atletico Madrid.

Both matches will be shown on Sky. While Wenger insists the change is not disruptive to Arsenal’s pursuit of a top four finish, the Gunners boss criticised the “irrational” choices made by television companies when selected matches for live broadcast.

Asked by Standard Sport whether Arsenal received any assistance in their own Champions League campaigns, Wenger said: “We never got any help on that front. Never.

“There is no written rule. When you speak to the Premier League, it is not the Premier League. It is the television companies who help. It is not the Premier League. The television companies decide who plays when and some clubs have maybe better introductions with television companies. We never had and we never tried to influence the decision of Sky or any other company.

Five things we learnt from Arsenal v West Ham

1/5

“If you want to know more, you look at the teams who have been protected since the start of the season and the teams who had the biggest rest between games. You will see and you come to your own conclusions. I don’t question the objectivity of the television companies but sometimes their choices don’t look very rational.

“I told you what I think about Chelsea – it is not my problem. If you want an objective view, I haven’t made it – just make your analysis between Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Man United and all the other teams who play in the Champions League and you will come to your own conclusions.”

Wenger revealed that Kieran Gibbs will be unavailable due to an ankle problem but Nacho Monreal could return after suffering a bruised leg against Wigan last weekend. Mesut Ozil is also set to return having been sidelined since Arsenal’s Champions League exit at Bayern Munich on March 11 with a hamstring injury.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in