English Premier League: Arsene says his current crop can emulate the “Invincibles”
Arsene Wenger had given his youngsters a lot of confidence before their weekends encounter against the relegation destined West Ham United by comparing them to perhaps the greatest Arsenal side in recent history, the team that was
called the “Invincibles”. The Invincibles were guided by Wenger to the English Premier League title over a course of a single season where the Gunners managed to go all 38 league games without even losing a single match.
It was a terrific feat back then during a time which was dominated by Manchester United. A long time has passed since those days for Arsene and his club as in the last five years, Arsenal has not won a single piece of silverware,
something that Wenger will be looking to change as soon as possible. In mid-week Arsenal defeated Newcastle United by four goals to nil to seal themselves a spot in the last eight teams of the competition. It was one of the rare occasions when Wenger fielded
a full strength side to overcome an experienced Newcastle side which had defeated Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge in the previous round of the competition.
Wenger spoke during a pre-match press conference as his team host West Ham United tomorrow in an English Premier League encounter, the Frenchmen said, "There is a lot more to come out of this team, I feel the ingredients of teams
which I had before who were successful are in there. It is just how much we can get them out and of course we need to keep all of our players fit. As long as the attitude is right and at the end of the season when you look back you think 'This team has given
absolutely everything they could', you will be proud of them."
After qualifying for the later stages of the Carling Cup, Arsenal are once again favorites to win a trophy and break their trophy duck which has been in place since the past five years. However, many do believe that winning the Carling
Cup alone will not be good enough for a club like Arsenal which has always challenged for the highest honors. Wenger agreed with that statement as he said, "There are some basics which have to be respected, it is important that priorities are there. For us
it is vital to always be at the top level, and the top level is being in the Champions League.”
Speaking about the Gunner’s fans and their massive worldwide following, Wenger added, "If you ask all of our fans, they will want to win every single trophy. They will not rule out the Champions League, nor the championship, and for
me they are right, because I am exactly the same, which is why I say let's give our best in every single competition and see where we stand at the end of the season."
Wenger also confirmed that the club has offered a new deal to their 20 year old goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny. The long standing Arsenal manager stated, "He wants to stay, I want him to stay, so basically plus, plus plus should be
plus, I want to play him, but our job is about competition. He has the qualities to fight for the position, and that is what I wish. He is a very talented young goalkeeper. He wants to be successful here and I want him to be successful here, so normally it
should work."
Wenger also spoke about his team’s chances at the weekend against a relegation threatened West Ham side, the manager expressed, “I think we got the lesson, in fairness to my team, that is the only game since the start of the season
where we did not perform well, but as well it shows that just once you are not completely there and you are caught.”
Arsene also commented on the title race by stating, "The consistency will be rewarded in the end and everybody can drop points against everybody, even if you look at the teams that are in the second half of the table at the moment
they are not far and if they have a run of two or three good games, they can aspire to be in Europe. It looks unlikely that Liverpool will win it, but you can't rule them completely out because mathematically the gap is not massive and they have a quality
squad."
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