Even if Maccabi were not the toughest of opponents, Chelsea now have their first home win, first clean sheet and face Arsenal as the only English winners in the Champions League group stage.
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There’s no love lost between the two managers ahead of this weekend.
Wenger and Mourinho clashed on the touchline during Chelsea’s 2-0 win in this fixture last season, before they failed to shake hands after Arsenal’s 2015 FA Community Shield win against the Blues.
“I do not consider too much where Chelsea stands at the moment and I’m focused more on us performing well with full power”, he said.
Manager Jose Mourinho has insisted he is still the right man for the job and has dismissed talk of a crisis at the club, despite being under pressure.
Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea have made a nightmare start to the defence of their Premier League title, accumulating a total of four points in their first five games and leaving them in 17th position.
“It can happen”, he said.
The Portuguese has described Hazard as the best player in the Premier League but was still prepared to hold a joke on the eve of the Rugby World Cup.
Wenger defended his decision to rotate the squad, with goalkeeper Petr Cech on the bench and Aaron Ramsey and Hector Bellerin not travelling to Croatia. “We know the situation in the league so we’ll flip straight back to that and we know this is a huge game”, he added.
“It’s easier to forget one competition and focus on one match and the match is Arsenal”. But in the same way I’m not in hell with bad results, I’m not now in heaven because we won a game. I’m not going to say it’s going to have an absolutely massive impact on that because it probably won’t but in terms of the feel-good factor around us, it certainly will.
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Wenger confirmed that England midfielder Jack Wilshere will have surgery on his latest injury – a hairline fracture of the shin – next week. “But the fact is that we wanted to test ourselves at the highest level which will mean we will also play better opponents”. Alexis Sanchez has not been as effective as last season and is yet to score, Giroud has been their best striker but is still struggling for form.
