Arsenal vs Chelsea: Full Transcript Of Wenger's Pre-match Conference Ahead Of Chelsea Game

Arsene Wenger faced the media in Thursday the 23^rd of April ahead of his title contenders clash against Chelsea where he talked about Mourinho, Fabregas, Vieira and lots more. This is the full transcript of his press conference. Enjoy.

Good morning Arsene, could we start with the team news please ahead of the Chelsea game?

Last week against Reading, we got Mertesacker injured. At the moment he has not been out, he's still in the treatment room. I don't know if he will be available or not. Apart from Mertesacker, everybody else should be available.

Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, is he getting closer?

He's still out. He hasn't been in training, if he's not in training, he's not considered at all.

But you mentioned last week that Mikael Arteta--is he getting closer?

He's getting closer, he's back in full training. He's still a bit short to go into a game of that intensity.

If Per doesn't make it, Gabriel showed in the FA cup semi-final that he's more than ready to step in.

He is ready yes, and he came on last week on Saturday, and I think if Per is not ready, Gabriel will start.

How pleased have you been with the 3 South American people with how quickly they've adapted to English football?

South Americans are ready to come in to English football now and they adapt very well, but sometimes they've gone to another country. Gabriel for instance has played in Villareal, and certainly that certainly speeds up the adaptation in England because they know already what is expected from them.

What are the chances of Per Mertesacker playing against Chelsea if you were going to rate him as things stand?

50-50 at the moment, he has not practiced at all.

I know you touched on this last week or the week before rather, but if you were to win against Chelsea, would you with 7 points the difference and 5 games to go, would you consider yourselves back in the title race?

Look, mathematically it will be possible yes, but Chelsea has their future and their championship in their hands. What we can do is to get closer to them, and we have an opportunity to do that at home and we want to take it.

Are you any closer to explaining why in 12 attempts, you've not been able to beat Mourinho? He could make it lucky 13 of course.

Look, I think we have not always lost first of all in 12 attempts, we were a few times close to beat them, and they had always strong teams as well. Having all said that, the result on Sunday will be just down to the performance on the day. We are on a good run, we have an opportunity at home to beat them and we want to take it.

I can't remember an Arsenal team going into this fixture on such a good run of form. Do you expect that to make a significant difference?

Of course from a good run of form, you get a good belief, and we have a good solidarity and we know that we have passed many tests where we were questioned, it's the first time we didn't win  away from home at Man City and things like that, so we have passed many tests, and we have another test on Sunday that we want to pass.

Will it require something different tactically from your team?

What it will require is basically Chelsea's strengths if you look at their numbers; they have been very efficient on counter attacks, very efficient on set pieces as well. So to nullify their strengths of course will be important.

How is your relationship with Jose Mourinho now? Is he a different person having come back to English football compared to when he was-?

I don't know and I do not want to talk about that because I think what is interesting for people is when the game starts at 4'0 clock to have a great game. That's what English football needs. Arsenal against Chelsea is a big football game, it's not about relationship between the managers.

Is he different though?

I don't know. Honestly I don't know.

Winning on Sunday, would that be an opportunity for you not just to have an impact on this season, and perhaps even lay down a marker even psychologically ahead of next season?

Yes, because we dropped points at the start of the season. Since January, we have made--I think we are top of the league since January, so we have an opportunity to show that improvement is consistent, that we want to continue our run, that's the first target, to continue to win. We want to strengthen our position as well at the top of the league in the second position because that is far from being done, and we have an opportunity as well to get closer to Chelsea and we want take it.

How worthy champions would Chelsea be? How would they compare if they go on to win it to teams who have won it in the last 5, 6 years?

Look, they have been very consistent until now, they are the team who has lost less games than any other team, so the championship, premiership rewards the consistency. And on that front, if you look at that record, they have been defensively very strong and very consistent.

Just a very few words on McCoy, he runs his last race, big arsenal fan.

Well my final encouragement for him to invite him after to dedicate his time to support arsenal.

                                                                                              

Has Eden Hazard been the most effective player in the premier league this season?

Outside of Arsenal players, yes.

Even including Arsenal players, has he not had..?

Look, everybody would agree he had a great season. He has found maturity that he had not before, his final ball is better, his personality on the pitch is stronger, the finishing aspect of his game is much better than before, and he can turn games over when its 0-0, and when its tied, so that's a sign of top quality.

Are you going to spend quite a bit of time talking to your team about how to stop him?

We have to--of course one of the aspects of that game would be to keep Hazard quiet.

You've beaten Manchester City and Manchester United. How important is it for the belief of your team to beat Chelsea?

It is very important, it is very very important for us to beat them and I think everybody on board is highly focused to achieve it, and we will prepare well to do that on Sunday.

You mentioned earlier on that your record against Jose Mourinho is not a good one. Is this your best chance of beating him?

You know it’s not a confrontation--it's a confrontation of 2 clubs, of 2 teams and I'm not a great believer in history. I just think football is down to the fact that the performance on the day will decide the game and the result, so let’s focus on that.

Arsene, I know you don't place great importance to your record against Jose, but do you think you have to change your approach or do something different against his teams?

Look, I just answered this question. We just have to focus on our game and play as well as we can.

Mourinho has the reputation as a tactical genius. Is that justified?

Look, you are the judge, you watch the games. It's not me job to assess, my job is to focus the team on the game and to prepare the team. Your job is to assess all the geniuses, and I leave you that job.

Do you expect Chelsea to try and shut the game down in the same way they did against Man United last week?

I don't know. We will adapt to what they do and try to find a solution. The challenge for us in top level sports is to find solutions to every problem you meet.

He has a habit of being quite cautious, quite negative in big matches. Surely that's what you expect him to do.

Look, as I just told you, we want to be at our best on Sunday and prepare ourselves to face the challenge, and to find a solution to every problem we will face on Sunday, and that's--not necessarily to have a negative Chelsea team in front of us, they might be very attacking, and we have to face any situation we can meet on Sunday.

It's Cesc Fabregas' first return to the Emirates. It's times past now, but do you have any regrets about not bringing him back?

Look, the regret I have is that he wanted to leave here. I think this club and myself had a very positive influence on Cescs’ life, so I would rather be a bit uncomfortable to having to justify myself today why he's not here. I believe that would rather be the other way around.

Do you think he regrets leaving?

I don't know, you should ask him that question.

He's likely to get a tough reception from the arsenal fans. Is that a shame given that obviously he's been such an important player here?

Look, I want every player to be respected and Cesc Fabregas when he comes on Sunday to the Emirates to be respected like he deserves it.

Statistically, he has faded in second half of seasons. He has done that this season, he did that here and Barcelona. You know him as a player, do you have any idea why that happens?

No, it's difficult as well, I personally look to be completely honest, i think he's a great player, but like every player, he has good periods and periods where it goes a bit less well. It's difficult for any player who played every single game since the beginning of the season to be absolutely at the top of his game for 50 games.

I just wondered whether you think that you are the only team remaining that could challenge Chelsea still?

Sorry.

Are you the only team remaining that could challenge Chelsea for the title still?

That could?

Yeah, do you feel you are the only team left that could mount a challenge?

No, Man United still has a chance as well, but there was a turning point certainly last week at Man United not beating Chelsea. That was certainly a very important moment of the season for the premiership, but now what we can do is to get closer to them, and we have that opportunity and we want to do it. It still means even if we beat them, mathematically, they are still in a very very strong position, but you never know.

Given the form that you've just shown, is there any regret looking back at the start of the season?

Yes of course. We had a disturbed preparation, we had a disturbed post world cup start of the season and we lost too many players at the start of the season to find a good balance, but since January we have done very well, so we have a feeling--we would like the championship to go on with 10 more games now.

And how much would you rate this season when you finish 2nd and potentially win the FA cup?

Again, I believe that 1st of all, nothing is done, there's a long way to go to finish 2nd in the league, and there's a long way to go to win the FA cup, so that's still very tricky in front of us, and for the rest, I let you judge that and assess that again.

Arsene, one of your former players who's making his first steps to management in Patrick Vieira at Manchester City, what sort of qualities do you think he brings to the management role?

I believe like many other players, he has the intelligence and competence to do this job, but I believe that Pellegrini has super competence and super quality as well, so if you want me to interfere in that, I'm not ready to do it.

With a player who has known the league, is it more and more difficult for them now to get an opportunity at a leading club?

I don't know, I believe that the media pressure maybe has been given a few years ago, but the problem is still the same. In the big clubs, you have to have a good record to win your games, and but as well you have better players to do it. But maybe what has changed is the competition in England is bigger than before and we have 6-7 clubs who can fight at every start of the premiership to win it. That means 5 or 6 will be very sad at the end of the season.

Do you feel 7 points behind Chelsea?

The reality we have to face, we live in the real world, and the real world is dictated by points. But sometimes you have to take a perspective as well when you're fighting for the championship, and I know that well, when you are on a good run, sometimes you take points that in the beginning of the season you were 2 or 3 places behind. 

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