Playing out a drab 0-0 on Sunday, Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger has pointed to the side’s difficult schedule as a reason for an uninspiring second half.

Arsenal looked bright at the start of the goalless draw with Sunderland but faded in the first half before a very lethargic display after the break.

Though he was encouraged by the opening 45 minutes, the Arsenal manager thinks the second half was a result of playing on Thursday evening.

“I think our first half was very good. The second half is always more difficult when you play Sunday-Thursday-Sunday,” Wenger said to BBC.

“We created less but could still have scored. We should have been in front in the first half.”

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Arsène Wenger cut a frustrated figure on Sunday. (GRAHAM STUART/AFP/Getty Images)

Well, that’s weird.

In the build-up to the game, the Frenchman said the very opposite: that playing on Thursday and then Sunday wouldn’t affect the side.

“Between Thursday and Sunday and Wednesday and Saturday morning is exactly the same,” Wenger said after Arsenal’s 2-0 win against West Brom. “You know we played on Wednesday night at Barcelona and then on Saturday against Everton at 12.45pm.”

I don’t have any issue with admitting it could be an issue but don’t insist it won’t be and change your mind when we don’t win. You also can’t really use the exact same team and then say tiredness is one of the reasons you don’t win. Come on, Arsène.

Wenger has been on the receiving end of plenty of criticism lately and things like this won’t help his cause as fans grow more and more frustrated.