Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger on Sunday hit out at the English Premier League fixture schedulers, who he claims have handed Chelsea an advantage ahead of their derby tomorrow.
Wenger launched a tirade against the fixture list and the standard of refereeing after his side were held to a 1-1 draw by West Bromwich Albion, with even Gunners legend Thierry Henry coming under fire.
Wenger broke Alex Ferguson’s record of 810 Premier League games as a manager, but he was in no mood to celebrate as he looked ahead to his side’s next game.
“You cannot give West Brom five days to prepare for a game like that when we have three,” Wenger said. “I am ready to play every day as long as our opponent has played the same time recovery over Christmas. It is not normal. We have the same problem against Chelsea. They played yesterday, we played today, they have one day more again.”
A late penalty from Jay Rodriguez rescued a draw for West Brom after Calum Chambers was penalized for handball in a decision that even West Brom boss Alan Pardew admitted was “tough.”
“It wasn’t a penalty,” Wenger said. “It was not a deliberate handball. He [Chambers] didn’t lift his hand. It was down. Where do you put your hands? You have no pockets in your shorts. The referee has not seen it. That’s my opinion, he will tell you that he has seen it. Ask him. I don’t want to waste my time with them, we have to live with the decision, to deal with it and to swallow it, and go to the next game.”
Alexis Sanchez had fired Arsenal ahead on 83 minutes with a deflected free-kick and celebrated with his teammates just days after the lack of a group celebration for a Sanchez goal against Crystal Palace had prompted TV pundit Henry to claim there were splits in the camp.
“I don’t listen to what he [Henry] says,” Wenger said. “I focus on our own problems. That is the important thing. All these people are paid to talk, and it is difficult always to talk and talk and talk, and only say things that are true and intelligent.”
West Brom have still not won in seven games under Pardew, who sympathized with Wenger over the late penalty.
“I’d be very upset if it was given against me,” Pardew said. “It was a tough penalty... I can understand Arsene being very angry about that, but we deserved it.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with