Full Transcript of Wengers' Press Conference Ahead Of West Ham Clash

Arsene Wenger faced the media ahead of the season opener against West Ham. This is the full transcript of his press conference. Enjoy.

Wenger faces media ahead of premier league opener against West Ham

               

Good morning Arsene. How are you feeling ahead of your 20^th season in English football?

I’m ready for a fight and of course motivated to start well because one of our targets is to start strong. We had a good preparation, that should give us a needed confidence, but Premier League is a fight in every single game so we have to prepare ourselves mentally for that and come out of the blocks straight away against West Ham.

You say good preparation. Can you remember a better preparation?

I don’t really know. We had no basic problem in preparation this season and so, every game went well. I cannot remember a much better…

You must be disappointed a bit about Jack’s injury and bad luck.

It’s bad luck, purely accidental. It’s a crack in his fibula, certainly at the region where they took the screws off, and so I believe it’s straight injury. Boney, that means there is no surprise there, just needs time to heal. The news we got yesterday was that it could be much shorter than expected because he is two weeks in the boot, and maybe after, he can practice straight away again.

How is Jack?

Jack is of course down, but the good news yesterday helped him to cope with it.

Arsene, just on Jack. Does it get harder for him each time he gets an injury because I know how much he was looking forward to the start of this season. I was talking to him at the end of last season and he thinks there is a real sense this could be an important club for him. Does it get harder that he just picks these injuries or he gets used to it?

You never get used to that. When you play football you never get used to your body letting you down. The positive thing in this injury is that it’s not a recurrence of one of his former injuries and as well that the positive news with Jack is that the history doesn’t play a big part when he comes back in his head. He plays with the same confidence, the same desire as before, but of course, it’s difficult. We have all been at that age when you love to play football, and when you can’t get up in the morning, you can’t play, it’s mentally difficult.

What about Alexis Sanchez? When will we see him?

I don’t know yet, I haven’t seen—he came back quite in a surprisingly good shape and so we will see. I think Sunday will certainly come too early, but in 10 days, he should be alright.

What would be success for you this season, Arsene?

For me, success is to get the maximum out of the potential of the team. That is the real success and to do better than last season because we always want to move forward. That means that the target is quite high because we won the Cup last year and we finished third in the League, so our target is very high. We want to fight for the Premiership and, that’s our ambition, to win the Premier League but we have to sustain that by performance and fighting spirit in every single game.

You said you are ready to fight right at the start of this news press conference. Because you’ve done so well in the pre-season, is there any extra anticipation this year?

Maybe, but I feel more that we finished last year in a strong way. Last year after 12 games we were 15 points behind Chelsea, and in the next 26 we took 58 points and Chelsea 55. So, that means we missed our start of the season last year because it was after the World Cup. So let’s start strong this season. I believe we have the needed ingredients. But we have a tricky start as well because we play two derbies and Liverpool in the first three games, so we have a difficult schedule from the start on.

How would you describe the effect Petr Cech has had so far?

He has integrated very well the team, he is a good communicator. He has experience, he has class and he brought all that to the team and I think he gave as well strength in the belief of the team that we can do well.

We are in the transfer window. Can we ask about Karim Benzema? There is reports of an injury. Does that change your thinking about him in any way?

No, you think for me about that because I never came out on Karim Benzema, but it is just media talk.

Without necessarily naming names, do you feel your business is done or do you expect you can still do?

Look, at the moment we have not Sanchez, we have not Welbeck and when these players come back, we feel that we have the needed striking force. But we do not rule out as well if something exceptional turns up to do it.

What do you make of the new disciplinary changes that have been imputed into the premier league this season?

I feel quite positive about them. The first concerns, part of it, my behaviour because it is technical area behaviour and you want ourselves to behave in the proper way. So we have to look at ourselves first and behave well. The second one I think is about simulation. I am a big, big fan of that because I feel it is important to help the referees that they know when the players go down that it is really a foul. Anyway what is good now is that all the camera angles, it will be more difficult to simulate and to get away with it.

The premier league seems to go from strength to strength. Do you think it will be the usual suspects this year or 5 or 6 or can you see somebody else perhaps surprising the bigger clubs this time around?

I don’t know. Always one of the teams every year, especially in the first part of the race in the first half of the season, always one team gets in. Who will it be this season? I don’t know. Last year, it was for a long period West Ham. When we played at Christmas at West Ham they were fourth in the league so it could be another surprise this season.

Arsene, just on those rule changes, what do you make of the offside rule. Do you understand it?

Look it makes sense the new offside rule. The only problem with that is that it comes down to interpretation and that will be a debate maybe. But for me the next step on the video front would be the offside rule.

Could the new rule open referees up to more criticisms?

Yes because they are judged on every single decision in the media, but it is a rule that can make it as well a bit easier for them because sometimes when a guy attempts to play the ball, for the life you don’t know did he really touch the ball or not. So this time if he takes advantage of an offside position, even if he’s close to the action or impacts the response of the opponent, he will be given offside. So it can help them as well to make an easier decision.

       

You spoke there about the challenge for the title  race this  season. Who are the favourites you would say?

Look, Chelsea won it by a margin last year so they are the favourites. After that let’s see how it goes. After 15 games you will know more about that.

Are you happy with the squad you’ve got now?

Yeah, of course I’m very happy with the squad I have. I’m very happy with the squad I have but we always look to strengthen and if that turns up, we will still strengthen our squad.

If you don’t strengthen, do you feel you’ve got the squad now that can win the title?

I believe yes. All going well, us maintaining, develop our game, that’s important that we feel we develop what we do well and do not stand still. That means we develop our cohesion, our passing game and if we are capable to keep the cohesion and the solidarity we have at the moment for the 38 games, we have a good chance.

As was mentioned, it’s your 20^th season with the club. How does this group of players compare to some of the side squads you’ve had in that time?

I don’t like to compare too much, but football evolves and the players evolve with that, but I was lucky during my 20 years to always have—I had always top players you know. Football has changed and sometimes, you go season after season, you don’t realize that it’s changed. When you look back 10 years or 15 years, you will realize how much it has changed, but every year, you just go with it.

Do you have greater expectations for Arsenal this season? There does seem to be much talk about you…

Yes of course, but we enjoy that. Before, we suffered sometimes from the fact that at the start of the season, nobody considered us at all because we lost our best players and this period is over now, so we are happy to be under this kind of pressure.

West ham this year compared to last season. New manager, lots of players have  left  the club. How do you compare?

I believe that the manager changed and the squad not so much, but they added quality players, especially in Payet, who is a very creative and efficient player. Overall I think they have more potential than last season offensively.

You talked about how strongly you finished the season last season and identified the start. Do you think a good start is the key to you winning the title this season?

It’s an important part of it yes. Look, we are competing with many teams and everybody else will want to start well. I think where we failed last year is at the start not after.

Have you done anything differently in terms of your preparations to make sure you start better this time?

No, last year was down to the world cup. When we started the season, Mertesacker and Ozil were not even back, and after, we lost straight away Giroud, Koscielny, Ozil  for four months until December and it was too much.

In terms of preparations, the fact that the season started a week early this year, you’ve not done anything…

Look, I am not a fan of starting earlier because I think it’s a massive mistake for England to start earlier, one week earlier and, because anyway, you have no Christmas break and I don’t know who came up with that idea that one game less at Christmas deserves one week holiday less when you have especially a European championship after the season. It’s completely unexplainable and it is a decision once again that on the technical side, we were not consulted at all.

What effect do you think it would have on the players?

I think it’s just—the difficulty nowadays is to find holidays for the players. In the FIFA rules, you have to give four weeks holiday to your players. Assuming you want to do that, you start the season with the youth team because all your players should be on holiday when you start the season. If you make it earlier and the competitions last longer next season, you will have European championships with player with 24 national teams. That makes already the competition last longer, nearly lasts a month now, so we finish later and we start earlier in the season. That means the players have no holiday.

So why do you think you were not consulted on this type of decision?

I don’t know, because these kinds of decisions are taken in meetings that we are not involved. But, the rest for a player, a natural rest every doctor tells you that from a micro contusions on the bones take 6 weeks to heal out completely. You heard that in England before, but you never get—any player doesn’t get that anymore at the top level. They get two to three weeks.

Arsene, I know you say that Alexis won’t be ready for Sunday, but judging by last season, he seems to want to play every game. How difficult is it to tell him that he won’t get part of this one?

Look, it’s about my decision, that’s all. I think he came back in a good shape. Will he not be involved at all, I do not know yet on Sunday. Depends on what I see on Sunday and who will be available, but he understands that perfectly well. I gave him—he’s one of the player who played  the world cup, came back here, played the whole season without break, goes to  the Copa America and basically cannot start the season. So at some stage, you need to give these players a rest or they get serious injuries.

On Jack Wilshere, you said you expect him back sooner than we thought. What time  scale is it on Jack?

I count four weeks.

Serge Gnabry the loan deal. Is it going through?

Yes.

Is it potentially happening?

He is going to West Brom.

Do you think it will be over in the next 24 hours?

He had a medical yesterday, we will confirm it today.