Three games, six days and 2,400 miles: Arsenal's hell week

Wenger did his best to pretend Arsenal weren't missing the Champions League, but if he still has enthusiasm about Europe's second tier tournament, it probably will have disappeared by Sunday evening.

The French manager tried to explain that the Champions League group stage is now 'routine' and that the competition had 'lost some attraction power', but the amount of people who believe those claims is likely to be small.

The flight time on each leg to Belarus comes in at just under three hours, meaning the Arsenal medical staff have a job on their hands if they are to get their star players back in tip-top condition for the clash against Brighton on Sunday afternoon.  

Despite stressing the Champions League does not have as much 'attraction power', there was hint of frustration in Wenger's voice when talking about the hectic schedule.

'Television decides when you play and that's it [all three games will be screened live].

'Where it becomes more difficult is after the Europa League game in Belarus. We then play Sunday morning.

'From Monday to Thursday, time will be short and especially from Thursday to Sunday. But you have to adapt.

'Maybe we have to make some decisions in BATE Borisov that will give us a chance to recover between the two games.'

Arsenal have an allocation of just 794 tickets at the 13,126-capacity Borisov Arena, meaning the trip to Belarus is for Arsenal die-hards only.