Arsene Wenger defends Arsenal's 14-minute flight ahead of Norwich match

Short-haul trip: Arsenal will take a 14-minute flight to Norwich on Saturday night
David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj28 November 2015

Arsene Wenger has defended Arsenal's decision to take a 14-minute flight to Norwich ahead of their Premier League game with the Canaries on Sunday after saying roadworks has forced the club to fly instead of travel by coach or train.

The Gunners were criticised by Plane Stupid, a network of groups that work to try and end short-haul flights, on Friday for opting to take the 14-minute trip by air from Luton Airport to the city instead of travelling by coach - a two-and-a-half-hour journey - or taking a direct train, which would transport the Arsenal squad to Norwich within two hours.

But Wenger insisted the club's decision to fly the 118-mile journey on Saturday night is an exception and was necessary to ensure traffic problems do not delay the team's trip to Norwich.

In quotes published by the Mirror, Wenger said: "We fly. Saturday night. After dinner here.

"When we made the decision there was some roadworks planned. Sometimes the access to Norwich is difficult, so we decided to fly. But it’s not a lot of difference.

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"We do not fly a lot any more. We take a train or coach. This is an exception. Now, we have a new coach.

"When you go to Birmingham, we took the train a lot because the traffic was impossible on a Friday afternoon on the M1.

"Now we found a solution is that we have dinner here and travel afterwards. So we go 7.30 to 9.30 and that usually goes well. We have no traffic problems.

"Before, when you left at 3 o’clock, we never knew when we would arrive."

Arsenal also took the decision to fly to Norwich in 2012, which Wenger said at the time was down to trying to overcome a similar issue of roadworks.

"Usually we take the train and there was no train available, so in the end we decided to fly because we had to drive up on Friday afternoon at the moment when you never know how long it lasts," he said.

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