Arsenal join complainers as Arsene Wenger outlines FA Cup ties should lose prominence
ARSENE WENGER has entered the row over the congested fixture list by saying it's time for the FA Cup to lose its supremacy and allow the Premier League to get first choice of match dates.
Arsene Wenger's Arsenal are set to play a minimum of eight games between January 1 and February 7
Over the years, a strict hierarchy has developed which has put league fixtures - now the priority for the majority of Premier League clubs - right at the bottom of the pile.
National team games are scheduled first and then European matches, before FA and League Cup dates which in turn have precedence over the league fixtures drawn up ahead of each new season.
Sam Allardyce is angry that his Sunderland side must travel to Swansea in midweek to fulfil a fixture that was shunted from the weekend to make way for last Saturday's FA Cup third round clash at Arsenal. By Saturday lunchtime, he is back in north London again to face Tottenham.
He described the decision to play the midweek games as "diabolical" and "ludicrous" without realising that it was a result of a mandate from the clubs the previous season to reduce the number of games over the festive period from four to three. The extra game had to go somewhere.
Wenger has been long enough in England to know that the game in the country is always going to be congested and Jurgen Klopp's contention that the schedule is crazy is not going to reduce it any time soon.
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