Arsene Wenger believes Real Madrid would be foolish to sack Rafael Benitez in the wake of their 4-0 defeat to Barcelona and said he hasn’t been approached about taking over.
Madrid president Florentino Perez is likely to support Benitez in a news conference on Monday evening despite being six points off the pace in La Liga following back-to-back losses.
In his pre-match news conference for the must-win game against Dinamo Zagreb, Wenger said it would be stupid to sack the former Liverpool boss after 12 games.
No [I haven’t been approached] and I would just like to take this occasion to completely support Rafael Benitez, who is an outstanding manager. I think it would be not serious to sack the manager after 12 games. I hope that he will get the support of Florentino Perez.
The Arsenal manager also addressed the need to bounce back from the 2-1 defeat against West Brom on Saturday.
The Gunners are in a fraught position in Group F, needing to beat the Croatians and hope that Bayern Munich beat Olympiacos to take it to the last game in Greece.
Wenger said his side will react well against Zagreb.
We came out of a game disappointed but we know we shouldn’t [have lost]. We didn’t deserve to lose this game and I believe this team is resilient, focused and ambitious and we will respond well tomorrow.
The Frenchman was also drawn on the form of Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy.
Vardy equalled Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of 10 consecutive games scoring in the Premier League, and Wenger was full of praise for the 28-year-old.
It’s absolutely fantastic. It is not a miracle, because that is a consequence of his quality. The miracle is that he played at Fleetwood and that he didn’t play in the Premier League before.
Another hot topic, especially from Wenger, has been doping in football. Zagreb midfielder Arijan Ademi has been banned for four years for a failed drugs test after the game against Arsenal in September.
Uefa rules state two players have to test positive for a match result to be affected, something Wenger doesn’t agree with.
It’s a surprising rule. Uefa applies the rule that is planned but I personally don’t agree with it. You cannot say that they had a doped player but the result stands. That means you basically accept doping. But it is the rule and we accept that. We have to look at ourselves and deal with our own performance.
