Wenger: TV coverage is a cause for fatigue

Manager Arsène Wenger has cited the extent of TV coverage for the game as a cause for fatigue within the team.

However, the Frenchman understands that it is a necessary evil due to the immense revenue that comes into the club.

Wenger cannot stop making comparisons though with the way continental leagues are more accommodating with their teams who are competing in Europe.

Wenger said: “It is not ideal. Let’s be frank, we asked to play on Saturday and we got an answer ‘yes, you can play on Sunday’.

“We asked the FA to play on Saturday because for example Roma play on Saturday when usually they play on Sunday.

“They moved their game to Saturday because every single knock you get or every problem is difficult to sort out in three days.

“Because we play away as well, we would have loved one day more. In this situation, for example it is very difficult because the FA is not the master of the fixtures.

“It is the television [companies] that is the master of the fixtures and they decide, which I can understand because they pay a lot of money.

“The problem is now the package we sell because it doesn’t give us any freedom any more to get the fixtures when we would like to have them.

“This is maybe somewhere we pay the price for the money we want.”