Arsene Wenger still questioning Eden Hazard's penalty as Arsenal prepare to lock horns with Chelsea again

Arsenal go to Chelsea for their crucial EFL Cup semi-final first leg this evening, with Arsene Wenger questioning the way Eden Hazard won a decisive penalty for his team at the Emirates last Wednesday.

This will be the second of three games between the teams this month, following the thrilling 2-2 draw at the Emirates on 3 January. Wenger was left fuming with the refereeing after that game, describing the award of a penalty for a Hector Bellerin kick on Hazard as “farcical”, comments which he has been asked to explain to the Football Association.

It was three days after that game that Antonio Conte described Wenger as an “old coach” who should accept the decisions of the referee, comments which have rather been lost by the outbreak of war between Conte and Jose Mourinho. But Wenger gave a riposte of his own to both Conte and Hazard, at his press conference at London Colney early on Tuesday morning, even if it lacked any of the vindictive spite of the Conte-Mourinho exchanges.

Wenger, for a start, made very clear that he did not especially blame Hazard for going down under Bellerin’s challenge half-way through the second half last Wednesday. But he did, in Wenger’s view, exaggerate the contact from Bellerin, in a way that encouraged Anthony Taylor to award the penalty.

“I did not blame Hazard,” Wenger insisted. “Why did I question Hazard? I did not. I questioned the decision of the referee.” Wenger then explained why, in his view, an objective view would see that Hazard had gone down willingly.

“We are objective. You look at the picture. You see how Hazard goes down and you see how quickly he takes the penalty when he gets the penalty. If he was so injured, why did he take the penalty?”

“He made more of it. What a professional [does], basically, and he shouts. I can understand that. I do not blame Hazard. He acted in a very professional way, basically to get the penalty for his team. Which he did well.”

Regarding Conte’s comments about Wenger’s age, the 68-year-old said that the 48-year-old was not exactly a young man either. “Am I an old coach? Yes,” Wenger admitted. “He's not a young coach. He is an old coach as well.”

Wednesday’s game will also be the second of Wenger’s three-game touchline ban for comments he made after Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at West Bromwich Albion on New Year’s Eve. Wenger will have to watch from the stands, as he did at the City Ground on Sunday, and he knows how frustrating that can be at Stamford Bridge.

Last February, when serving his last touchline ban, Wenger had to watch Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat to Chelsea from the stands, rather than the directors box, so that he could be on the correct side of the ground to access the dressing room at half-time. But he did not enjoy being up there.

“I must tell you that was a bad experience,” he admitted. “It was very uncomfortable and awkward. I was focused on the game. It was not a pleasant experience.”

Ideally Wenger would have rather been in the directors’ box, but that is the wrong side of Stamford Bridge from the dressing rooms. “At Chelsea, you have to go to the other side to go in the directors’ box, so by the time you get around the stadium, it’s 10 minutes played,” he said. “I can still do the pre-match in the dressing room, and at half-time. If I go in the stands, if it takes me too long from when the players go out, I miss the first part. So to go back in the dressing room, I have to miss again. After, if it takes me too much time at half-time, I miss again five minutes. After the game is less important. So I could miss nearly one half, if it takes too much time.”