However, Wenger also said that their packed schedule could be a disadvantage when it comes to chasing Premier League leaders Chelsea, who are eight points ahead of the second-place Gunners ahead of their clash at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. But we must manage the time we play him and rest him.
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“Now it’s down to us to perform and to produce with the quality of our focus, the quality of our ambition and desire to produce the performance in every single game”.
And Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez, Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud and Alex Iwobi are all competing for starting spots.
Wenger said Arsenal would mirror most Premier League clubs by doing very little business in the final hours of the window, with his only addition this month having been young left-back Cohen Bramall from Hednesford Town.
Wenger watched on from the stands as Arsenal thrashed Southampton 5-0 in the FA Cup at St Mary’s on Saturday, but will be out of the dugout as his side, now in second place, look to close the eight-point gap on leaders Chelsea.
“I’m not a medical specialist but you hope that it will all go well after he comes back after the second surgery”.
“Bergkamp and Henry had the quality but we did not have a large number”.
“They tend to be our bogey side and we know our hard it is going to be coming here but from the word go we were ready”, said Walcott.
“People always look at it like that”.
“Those who don’t like me, any sentence will be too lenient”, Wenger told the media following the FA Cup tie. “And after, when you have them, they say how do you keep them happy now?”
So it was not really all that surprising to hear Wenger dismiss the latest rumours linking him with the apparently long term Arsenal transfer target Karim Benzema, reported by Metro.
“I didn’t expect (Welbeck) to be at that level”, said Wenger.
Wenger was given a four-match suspension by the Football Association, meaning he will also watch the games against Watford, Chelsea and Hull City from the stands.
Watford is unbeaten in their last three games, drawing two of them. “We have experienced that recently against Burnley again”.
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The outstanding 19-year-old Ainsley Maitland-Niles, in a deep midfield role on only his fourth first-team start for Arsenal, played a pass forward to Perez, whose flick found Welbeck running clear of the defence to chip the ball over Lewis and in off the crossbar. “But our attitude is spot on and we are ready to fight”.
