Arsene Wenger has challenged his Arsenal team to raise their game against their direct title rivals and deliver a first Premier League crown for a decade.
Arsenal host manager-less Crystal Palace – Tony Pulis walked away on the eve of the league’s start – and are out to make a flying start to the new campaign, with morale high following last weekend’s 3-0 win over a makeshift Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley.
After ending their nine-year barren run with an FA Cup final victory in May, Wenger is confident Arsenal – boosted by the £30 million (Dh183.9m) summer signing of Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez – have the platform on which to mount a sustained assault on the championship. “I believe we have a chance because we were a long time top of the league last year,” Wenger said yesterday.
“It is difficult to know how much better the other teams will be. There are some challenges we have, of course, to face that we did not face well last year, and that means we have to take more points from the top teams.
“That will be our real challenge this year, and also to keep the consistency against the teams who do not fight for the championship.
“We finished fourth last year and made 79 points. Man City won it with 86, so it was very tight in the top four, that is one or two games.
“If you win against them, they have three points less and you have three points more, that means it is down to one game.”
Arsenal are one of several sides in contention to have brought in more firepower this season.
Wenger feels “six or seven teams” could offer a genuine challenge.
He said: “The favourites you have again, Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool, Man United and us. Then you have Everton, they were very dangerous last year as well and could be candidates. How well will Tottenham respond?
“There is no hierarchy in the teams I give you, there is no priority – they are just the obvious candidates.”
Wenger remains pleased with the transfer business done so far, much of it early with France international Mathieu Debuchy, promising young defender Calum Chambers and Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina all on board.
Arsenal have been linked with Real Madrid’s German midfielder Sami Khedira, whose wage demands are thought to be a stumbling block, as well as Greece defender Kostas Manolas.
“Number wise we are maybe a little short in some areas of the game, but the depth of the squad is very good,” said Wenger, who would like Joel Campbell and Serge Gnabry to remain at the club rather than go out on loan.
“We are not destabilised, and I feel it’s a strong reinforcement of our squad. Will I still do something? I don’t rule it out.”
The German World Cup winners Per Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski are to be given more time to prepare for the season following their extended summer break.
They are also not expected to be in consideration for next week’s Uefa Champions League play-off game’s first leg against Besiktas. Wenger is confident Arsenal can get the better of Palace, who will have Keith Millen in charge following Tony Pulis’s sudden departure this week, before turning attentions to the trip to Istanbul.
“We play against Crystal Palace, who are an uncomfortable team for everybody, but I believe the way we can put pace and dynamism in our game can help us prevail to have a good start,” Wenger said.
Spurs expected to walk the talk of ‘style and philosophy’
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino hopes his team will quickly show their style on the pitch this season to stop his “boring” talk of a change in football philosophy.
The former Argentina international took over at White Hart Lane this summer on the back of an impressive spell in charge at Southampton, which saw them break into the Premier League’s top 10.
Pochettino takes his squad, which has had the signings of goalkeeper Michel Vorm and defenders Ben Davies and Eric Dier added to it, to West Ham United today, before a Europa League play-off away to AEL Limassol on Thursday.
Pochettino accepts it may not be a case of seeing immediate results following a change of direction in the dugout, but is realistic on the subject.
“We have to impress our style and philosophy. That sounds boring, maybe, but it is true,” he said yesterday.
“This is the most important thing – to create something, to believe – and is the key for the way to success.
“This is only the beginning of the season, so we need to improve and put in practice the new philosophy and style.
“The players need time, it is true, to improve, to believe and to learn. Then after we will see.”
West Ham beat Spurs three times last term, but Pochettino does not want to read too much into those results.
“This is my first season at Tottenham,” he said. “The past is the past.
“Of course we need to learn from the past, but anything which happened was last season.”
Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris feels the squad are in a positive frame of mind to lay down a marker when the action starts for real following a promising pre-season campaign.
“This kind of game is a good test as a first away match, and it’s difficult to look for anything but a victory,” the France captain said on the club’s official website, tottenhamhotspur.com.
“You always need to have determination, ambition and passion and we have the ambition to go to Upton Park and get three points.”
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