The fall-out from Arsenal's feisty derbies against Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurcontinued to dominate the build-up to their important weekend Premier League game at Leicester City, with Gabriel banned for the match.
The 24-year-old Brazilian defender, sent off last Saturday for retaliating against Chelsea's Spain striker Diego Costa, had his dismissal rescinded but was handed a one-match ban on Friday after admitting an FA charge of improper conduct.
Gabriel was fined £10,000 and suspended for failing to leave the pitch quickly enough.
Costa, who appeared to have escaped with a yellow card, was subsequently banned for three matches but that did not pacify Wenger, who said that it repaired only "five per cent" of the damage his team suffered by losing Gabriel before half-time.
"Ideally, we want the right decision to be taken during the game. We should have played with 11 against 10 but instead we played with 10 against 11," Wenger told a news conference.
After their 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal won a League Cup tie 2-1 at their greatest rivals, Spurs.
Chelsea’s Brazilian-born Spanish striker Diego Costa (L) reacts after the sending off of Arsenal’s Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista - AFP
They will also be without injured midfielder Francis Coquelinfor Saturday's trip to Leicester, the only unbeaten team in the league.
Claudio Ranieri's side lie one place and two points above Arsenal in fourth position.
"It shows we have a strong squad," Wenger said of the win at Tottenham. "We showed how to fight on Wednesday night. The game was about commitment and mental resources which we showed.
"I have great confidence in these players."
That includes Chile forward Alexis Sanchez, last season's leading scorer for the club, who is without a goal so far in the new campaign.
"It takes time to settle and come back to your best," Wenger said. "I'm not worried about Alexis Sanchez and I'm confident he will score."
OUR VIEW
£10,000 for "failing to leave the pitch quickly enough"? Good grief, if anything ever smacked of the FA realising they'd gone too far, it's this. The whole thing has been a hopeless, embarrassing mess from start to finish. Rescinding Gabriel's red entirely was somewhat excessive even when it was clear that Costa had been the first mover in all the trouble; and this hefty punishment is yet another knee-jerk reaction after many people pointed out (quite rightly) that Gabriel deserved a sanction for what he did in retaliation.
Of course, Wenger is right: ideally, this would have been handled properly on the spot by the referees in the first place. Had it been a rugby match, we'd have seen the pair being taken to one side for a talking-to by the referee long before any of it escalated on the pitch. While suggestions that rugby-style advantage would be hard to work into football, surely the culture of a quiet talking-to before cards are necessary would be easy enough to bring in?
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