The Gunners boss will be in the away dugout at the Parc des Princes for tomorrow night’s Champions League Group A opener having rejected opportunities to take charge of the Parisian giants in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
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Aaron Ramsey is back in training but the Welshman hasn’t travelled so has remained in north London to continue to work on his fitness following a hamstring injury.
“I was used to playing with my younger squads when you build a stadium because you don’t have the resources”, Wenger said. It’s not going to be easy in Paris because all the teams in the Champions League are big teams, with big players.
“The squad is between 24 and 30, basically”, he continued.
He added: “If I arrive, and I say, ‘I will lead the reserves, I will become Arsene’s deputy, ‘ no, it is not possible”.
Olivier Giroud is expected to make his first start of the season up front for Arsenal, after being gradually eased back into first-team action after Euro 2016, and making just two substitute appearances so far.
The France global suffered the blow during the dying stages of the Gunners’ 2-1 win over Southampton on Saturday.
“But I think we’ll prepare in the best way possible and we know what we have to do to cause them problems”.
“We know he’s very tricky, has a very good left foot and he’ll be a hard player to defend [against]”, said the Spain global.
Although Arsenal have always qualified for the knockout stages since the inception of the new format in 2003/04, they have failed to progress past the Round of 16 in recent seasons.
“I have been attending UEFA coach meetings for years now and I admire him”, he said of Wenger at his pre-match press conference.
“He’s alright, he had a big knock but recovered quite well”.
Arsenal finished in second place in the Premier League table last season and 10 points behind champions Leicester City. He played very well, because he helped us get back into the game after we started not fluent and not pacey.
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But Wenger has confirmed he will be available and lauded him as one of the best defenders in the game. The team is ready, I think defensively we have had a few good performances so the team is up for it.
