Arsene Wenger spoke to the media today ahead of Monday’s fixture as the Gunners travel to east Yorkshire to face league strugglers Hull City.
The Frenchman spoke about a number of topics including team news, the balance in the side, the depth of the squad, opponents Hull City and the competition of the two Arsenal goalkeepers.
Team news
Team news is fantastic for the Gunners, with only one player unavailable, a level of depth that we’re not used to seeing with the north London side.
Wenger: “Everybody is in good shape, apart from Mathieu Debuchy, who has a little hamstring problem. We don’t know how bad it is. Apart from that everybody should be available [for the Hull game].
Wenger discussed how Debuchy’s injury occurred and stated: “He got the injury in training.”
The Manager was clearly pleased with the competition for places within the squad and again discussed the run Arsenal are on.
“We are at a period of the season where it’s going to be important to have everybody on board and to see everyone fit makes us stronger. We are on a good run, we want to keep it going and the fact that we have plenty of [selection] opportunities is very interesting for me.”
On Mikel Arteta, the boss said: “He’s making progress week by week but he needs more time.”
Balance
With the emergence of Francis Coquelin in the side this season, Arsenal seem to have found the right ingredients in defence and attack, with the current balance of the side creating a perfect formula for success, but the boss admitted that the balance being found at such a late stage in the season meant that the club suffered in the early stages.
Wenger had a number of reasons why the side started so slowly, with the World Cup being the biggest factor in Wenger’s opinion.
“I’ve said many times that we had big injuries at the start of the season, after the World Cup, and that we only got our squad together more recently.
“Even then we still lost players like Jack Wilshere in November, and then again afterwards. We were not altogether. It took us some time to find a good balance in the team and we dropped some points because of that.
“When you look at games like Stoke away, the big disappointment for us was that we had a very young defence on the day and missing players was certainly detrimental to our results.”
The boss also believes that the side has slowly grown in to the season and saw the game against Chelsea last weekend as a good example of the clubs progress.
“I look at it in a positive way because what you want from a team is to show during the season that you can grow together and become better,” he said.
“We faced a big challenge because Chelsea didn’t drop their level in the title race, and they were more consistent from the start until the end, and that’s why we didn’t catch them up.
“Overall we feel we have made progress.”
Depth of the squad
With the club’s star players all vying for a place in the side, the Manager spoke about the quality that cannot get into the first team.
Wenger said: “I am happy with the depth of the squad because I have many top international players who sometimes cannot make the squad.”
The midfield is an area that is hot in competition for places, with quality players such as Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, Wilshere, Francis Coquelin, the returning Abou Diaby, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mikel Arteta and more all battling for a place in the side.
On Hull
Arsenal’s opponents on Monday night are currently sat in 15th place, four points above 18th placed Sunderland who have a game in hand.
The Yorkshire side have arguably the toughest run in of any of the sides battling for a place in the Premier League, with games against Arsenal [Monday], fellow strugglers Burnley at the KC Stadium next weekend before facing Spurs at White Hart Lane and finishing the season at home to Louis Van Gaal’s giants Manchester United.
Despite a tough run in, Hull managed to pick up vital and surprising victories over both Crystal Palace and Liverpool.
Wenger said of Hull: “With the last two results it looks like they will stay up but it’s very difficult to predict who will go down.”
Competition in between the sticks
David Ospina is currently the Arsenal number one and thanks to his impressive performances in between the sticks, things will remain that way for the reminder of the season.
However, Wojciech Szczesny started the season as first choice and it seemed Ospina was purchased as ‘backup’ for the Pole, but incidents both on and off the pitch saw Wenger lose confidence in the 25 year-old and Ospina took the opportunity with open arms.
Now number one, Wenger spoke up of Ospina and stated that he believes in both of his goalkeeping options.
“I believe in the goalkeepers I have. I believe that Szczesny is a very good goalkeeper and Ospina has come in and done a fantastic job. You look at the numbers in the Premier League and you look at who is top of all the goalkeepers and you will see it’s Ospina.”
Arsenal face Hull City on Monday night at the KC stadium with kick off at 8pm.
