Arsene Wenger has defended Arsenal's travel plans as the Gunners prepare to undertake a 14-minute plane journey to Norwich City for Sunday's clash at Carrow Road.
The French manager has shunned a conventional coach trip after revealing that roadworks could hinder their 118-mile trip to Norfolk.
"We fly. Saturday night. After dinner here. When we made the decision there was some roadworks planned. Sometimes the access to Norwich is difficult, so we decided to fly. But it's not a lot of difference," he is quoted as saying by The Mirror.
"We do not fly a lot anymore. We take a train or coach. This is an exception. Now, we have a new coach. When you go to Birmingham, we took the train a lot because the traffic was impossible on a Friday afternoon on the M1.
"Now we found a solution is that we have dinner here and travel afterwards. So we go 7.30 to 9.30 and that usually goes well. We have no traffic problems. Before, when you left at 3 o'clock, we never knew when we would arrive."
The 'embarrassing' decision has not gone down well with Plane Stupid spokeswoman Ella Gilbert, whose group aims to end short-haul plane journeys.
"Having lived in Norwich and Finsbury Park, I can tell you that this is a distance that you can do in two hours by train, without fuelling climate change. This is ridiculous," she told the Evening Standard.
"I'm a life-long Gooner so I'm used to being occasionally embarrassed by my team, but I prefer them to wait until after kickoff before humiliating their supporters."
The North Londoners also flew to Norwich back in 2012, before going on to lose to the Canaries 1-0.
Shane Callaghan
