Arsene Wenger faced the media ahead of Saturday afternoon’s North Lon
don derby. Below is the full transcript of his pre match conference. Enjoy
don derby. Below is the full transcript of his pre match conference. Enjoy
Good morning Arsene
Good morning.
Its your 700th league game in charge of arsenal. Does the north London derby still remain as special as ever?
Yes of course, because 2 teams are fighting very hard to be top of the league, and it can be a spectacular game
One all draw at the emirates though earlier in the season. How different is it a challenge for an arsenal team at white hart lane?
Look in the derbies, the home ground is not too significant sometimes because it’s high commitment, high players, and you just focus on the quality of our game and the quality of our performance no matter where we play, and we will do the same thing tomorrow
A look at the team news, AlexIs is out, but what about Danny Welbeck?
Danny Welbeck is back, jack wilshere will join normal training next week, he’s ahead of schedule, and Sanchez for me is out, although he wants to have a go today, but I think he’s too short
Last week made it 5 consecutive wins since new year’s day. What do you put that sort of form down to?
Look, confidence, the fact that we defend better maybe, and we have another good test tomorrow on that aspect of our game, and after, football is fragile when you have not the confidence with positive results behind you, it makes everybody stronger, and we have as well recovered all our defenders now, and that is of course important
How far away is Paulista away from starting?
Paulista can start, at the moment I think he’s ready to start, he’s just not used to playing in our back four and he doesn’t master the language at the moment at all you know and he’s physically ready.
Would it be risky to play him?
No, at the moment I have no special temptation to change the middle of our defence because we are going for a strong sphere defensively, but he’s ready to play
How disappointed were you with the pictures of Jack Wilshere with the pot?
Look, I've spoken with him about that, hes not a smoker but he is of course sorry that it happened, but it’s down to him to master his life, he had a day off the next day, he went out to watch the super bowl and when he’s here, he follows the rules that we dictate, when he’s out of his job, it’s his own responsibility to behave like he’s supposed to behave.
You say he’s not a smoker, but its not the 1st time, there have been 3 incidences..
I don’t think there’s any more to add on that but I believe this photo has been taken by half past 12, when you watch the super bowl and I don’t know more of what happened, and its not of a big interest
What do you say to those who say there’s a little bit of a smoking culture at arsenal?
What I say is these people are wrong.
There’s a report that says Callum Chambers move from Southampton is being investgated apparently because of a complaint of a 3rd party. Are you happy that everything s above board?
Yes, im very happy about his transfer. I made over 350 transfers since I’m here, and they have a lot of enquiries about them, and there was never any problem.
In terms of the transfer window that shut on Monday, were you happy with the business you did?
Yeah, im very happy. For me the target in the transfer window was on 2 fronts. The first is to get a central defender in, that we did, and the second was as well to extend the contracts of Coquelin and Akpom, and that I did as well, so we are very happy with what we did.
What did you make of the news this week that Harry Redknapp resigned, we don’t often see premier league managers resign?
It was a complete shock and a surprise, but when its down to health reasons, you respect that of course you feel sorry, cause I feel harry has the competence and the knowledge and the experience to get QPR out of trouble, and it was a complete surprise
Will the premier league miss him?
Yeah of course because he arrived 18 years ago, and has been working in te premier league. Of course.
Are you worried Jack might be getting a reputation as a bad boy?
Yes you are always worried for your players that get what they don’t deserve but I think I observed him well, and he behaves in a very professional way I must say because every morning he’s certainly one of the first in and every afternoon, certainly the last out. He works very hard, he has gone for some bad spells in his career and he has recovered, and I think it would be wrong to give him that kind of reputation because he’s a very serious player, and he works very hard.
Do you feel that you've not gotten through to him, because you've spoken to him at other times?
I think sometimes, you have been 20 as well, you need sometimes to lose a little bit the pressure, but I think today its much more difficult, because everywhere you go, people take photos, and a photo doesn’t always run every second of your life, it doesn't define who you are you know, and I believe you have to take that with a distance as well. I remember when I was in Brazil, I've seen photos of people I didn't even know were around me you know, so you have to be very careful about that.
How much are you going to miss Sanchez tomorrow?
I don’t think about the game like that, we just want to go to the game and perform. Offensively we have options, we are not short, and I think we have enough offensive power if all of us perform individually and collectively well, we can get above that.
You've had a lot of good results against tottenham in the past few years, why do you think that is?
There’s no rational explanation there, we just go there and try to perform, and focus in what we want to do
Is there a risk with Jack that if he doesn't stop it, he’s not gonna fulfill his potential?
No, I don’t think there’s any more to add to that. I believe he works hard, he practices well, he’s ahead of schedule in his training, he’s 2 weeks ahead, we don’t do that if you’re not serious. As I told you, he’s first in, last out and he works very hard to get there.
In terms of Alexis, is it still difficult to tell him he’s not playing, because he always seems to want to play?
That’s not easy yes.
Does he take it badly though that he’s not gonna play?
He wants to play of course, he’s very keen, he thinks he can even defy the medical people, he’s so keen to play that things can get over-strange
Is there any chance that if he trains today, that he could feature?
I don’t know yet, I need medical advice on that, and I need to see as well what he can do in training.
Do you think Tottenham would stick with Pochettino almost whatever happens this season?
Look, technical stability is important.
Because they've not had a lot of that...
Look yes, but I don’t know why, and it’s not down to me to interfere with that.
When Jack is fit, does he face a huge battle now to get back into the side?
Any player has a battle in our squad now, we have a compact squad with competitive runs in every single position, you need to be at your best to have a chance to play.
Do you feel that when you've got Jack back now and Alexis Sanchez, you've got a squad capable to make a challenge for the rest of the season, not just to target the top 4?
I feel yes of course, but that is the target of us until the end of the season four months in front of us that are very important to everybody, and it’s how well we can focus in every single game, how well we can perform together that will decide our season.
Just going on the January transfer, were you surprised at the lack of big moves on deadline day?
No, I saw on television, people were a bit lost, jobs lost, and I would just like to say it shows that still, financial fair play had an impact for sure, because we have experienced some seasons before, such low activity level across Europe. Nothing happened, and it pushes completely more an ideal forward, let’s completely get rid of it, and go from season to season with the same players.
Do you think that would work?
Yes, because it can disturb the cohesion of the groups in the season, because when the players don’t play in October, or end of September they already think maybe I’m moving in January and you lose them and in our job it’s important that everybody is on board and I find the transfer window disturbing.
Have you cured your problem with the early Saturday kick-offs?
We have never any specific problem with the timing of the kick-off, believe me it’s just what we had with these fixtures last season is the quality of our performance, you know we played 1:40, and 12:45, let’s be serious, it’s not 45 minutes later that you would feel absolutely fantastic and terrible at 45 minutes earlier. This is not true, it‘s a joke.
And how pleased have you been with the way Mesut Ozil has hit the ground running since his return?
He’s worked hard. He has a similar attitude to Jack when he came back from injury, and he worked extremely hard physically to be fit, and he benefits from it now.
How much praise do you have for Pochettino, he’s taken his philosophy of bringing the best young players very much like you have done at arsenal?
I think this season the players who played this season have already played last season. Bentele for example has played last season. Mason yes came through this season and of course Tottenham is like us who have always a very good youth team and have always the quality to bring players out.
How impressed have you been with Harry Kane this year at Tottenham?
He was absolutely outstanding until now, and impressive the way he has made his way, and personality shows on the pitch. He’s one of the players that since the start of the season has made a big impact in the premier league.
Does it show that home grown players still can come through the ranks?
I'm convinced of that, that’s why I always say the quota system is a false and superficial protection. The quality, when the players have the quality they play, no matter where they are from, that’s why we have to support that, let’s go for quality, and let’s get our players confronted with top quality players, if they make it then, then they are really good players.
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