Arsène Wenger’s solution to what he perceives to be the difficulty of getting to Norwich will once again be to charter a 14-minute flight to the city. Arsenal play Norwich at Carrow Road on Sunday at 4.15pm and the squad will fly in from Luton airport on Saturday evening and stay the night in a local hotel.
The club adopted similar travel arrangements in October 2012 for a Premier League fixture that they lost 1-0, and they were heavily criticised by environmentalists who were worried about the carbon footprint. It would take roughly two hours for Arsenal to travel to Norwich by road, traffic permitting.
“When we made the decision [to fly] there were some road works planned,” he said. “Sometimes, the access to Norwich is difficult. So we decided to fly. We’ll go after dinner here on Saturday night. But it’s not a lot of difference [time-wise]. We do not fly a lot any more. We take the train or coach. This is an exception.”