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Wenger on Xhaka and the late penalties

Where do you start trying to explain the end to that match?

It was up to Arsene Wenger to do so after his side firstly saw Granit Xhaka sent off, then conceded a 93rd-minute penalty which seemed like it would end their hopes of claiming three vital points.

The Arsenal manager was sent to the stands in the aftermath, but was a relieved man after Alexis cooly slotted home a last-gasp winner with a spot kick of his own.

Wenger spoke to the media after the match, and this is what he said:

on whether he saw the Burnley penalty incident…
I saw it but it didn’t look a penalty to me, but maybe it was one, I don’t know.

on the Arsenal penalty and Granit’s red card…
Our penalty, I saw it on television. I think it was a penalty and red card. Xhaka’s red card? Honestly I have to look at it again. The noises I get is that it was a red card and he has to control his game and not punish the team with lack of control in his tackling. We don’t encourage our midfielders to go down on tackles, we want them to stand up and not to make these kind of fouls. If it’s a bad tackle, it’s a red card.

on if he’s disappointed in Xhaka…
I’m disappointed that we played with 10 men, yes.

on Xhaka being sent off by Jon Moss twice this season…
We’ve had two red cards and four penalties [given against us] this season at home now. You cannot say that we make it easy for ourselves, or that we get it easy.

on being sent to the stands…
I didn’t know if I was sent to the stands but I was sent out. I thought I could watch it from the corridor, you know. I went inside and watched it on television.

on if he regrets it…
I regret everything. I should have shut up, gone in and gone home, basically. I apologise for that.

on if he’s spoken to the fourth official…
Not yet, because I have a press conference to make. It was nothing bad. I said something that you hear every day in football, but overall nine times out of 10, you’re not sent to the stands for that. But if I am, I am - and I should have shut up completely. I was quite calm the whole game, more than usual, but just [not] in the last two or three minutes.

 

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