Wenger – Now We Climb The Table

Manager Arsene Wenger has told the squad to prove that we are in a false position in the league, and he wants us to capitalise on the Christmas fixtures to see us climb the table and give ourselves a positive start to 2015.

With Queens Park Rangers on Boxing Day, followed by West Ham and Southampton who currently sit above us in the table, the manager explained.

‘We have to make sure that over Christmas we take advantage of the schedule we have and put the performances in. We have a good opportunity over Christmas to show that we are very much better than people think we are. Every team has difficult games, so it is the consistency in that period that will matter.’

With us hosting QPR next, and with them failing to take a point on their travels so far this season, Wenger said he expects them to be a very tough opponent as in many ways they have nothing to lose, they will just come at us and people will pile the pressure on us thinking it will be an easy victory.

‘You focus on your own performance and don’t expect any weakness from your opponent. In the Premier League every game is difficult and you just want to turn up. We played QPR two yeas ago and they were very difficult games. West Ham at the moment are in very good shape. We go away to Southampton, which is a very difficult as well. Again, it’s down to our performances.’

Key to pushing up the table now, the manager knows that we have to address our away form particularly.

‘I feel that we have not been efficient enough away from home. In our last two away games we were not strong enough defensively, not at Stoke and not at Liverpool. There’s disappointment (Liverpool) because we conceded a goal in the last minute. You can’t concede goals on corners at any minute and we were caught because we were not organised.’

Wenger says that has been addressed in training now and they have been working hard to improve on that as he knows generally we aren’t too bad on set pieces, but they have been costing us this season.

In terms of team news for the game on Boxing Day, Wenger expects to ‘certainly’ have Rosicky and Sanogo back in the team, Ospina is also available but at the time of speaking he didn’t know about Bellerin, but was hopeful.

Already ruled out are Ramsey, Arteta and Ozil obviously and although Koscielny is close, he feels the game on Friday will come too soon. Ramsey may be back in time for the Southampton match, and he expects Arteta to be back for the New Year but not before.

walcott’s also making good progress now he is back in training, but having been out for so long he obviously needs to be re-introduced slowly as he builds his fitness again.

Quotes – Official Site.