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Arsene Wenger 'has sympathy' for Chelsea boss Antonio Conte

Wenger 'has sympathy' for Antonio Conte
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Arsene Wenger understands Antonio Conte's frustrations over the size of his squad, but hints that it was a problem of his own making due to the number of faces offloaded.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that he has "sympathy" for Antonio Conte over the size of his squad, but believes that his Chelsea counterpart has made his own problems.

Both Conte and skipper Gary Cahill have confessed to being worried by the dearth of options available from the bench, highlighted in last weekend's Community Shield defeat to the Gunners at Wembley.

Although Wenger understands the former Juventus chief's frustrations, the Frenchman insists that the problem could have been avoided had Chelsea not loaned out so many players during the summer months.

"Maybe he has the opposite problem [to Arsenal] but if you look at the number of players that are out on loan, they can call a few back," he told Sky Sports News. "I have sympathy for him. But do I feel sorry for Chelsea because they don't have enough players? Then no."

Chelsea have offloaded 30 squad and fringe players since the end of the 2016-17 season, which ended with them coming out on top in the Premier League.

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2Arsenal19116238172139
3Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest1911442619737
4Chelsea19105438231535
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6Manchester CityMan City199463226631
7Bournemouth198652923630
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12Brentford197393335-224
13West Ham UnitedWest Ham196582335-1223
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16Everton183871524-917
17Wolverhampton WanderersWolves1944113142-1116
18Ipswich TownIpswich1936101833-1515
19Leicester CityLeicester1935112242-2014
20Southampton1913151239-276


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