11th August, 2014
Arsene Wenger has warned Arsenal’s title rivals ahead new English Premier League, EPL, season that he is armed with his most dangerous attacking unit for years.
After his side thumped Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield yesterday, Wenger said: “Three, four, five years ago we lost a big player every year. In the last two years we’ve added players, like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. I have more attacking options than I’ve had for a long time.’
The impressive victory also suggested Arsenal can reverse last year’s poor results against their main rivals and finally mount a sustained title challenge.
Wenger added: “Last year, we were very consistent against teams outside the top six and not consistent against top-six teams. The year before it was the reverse. It’s hoped that this year it will be right on both sides.”
Goals from Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud sealed victory and Wenger said: “To win today gives us a positive platform. You want to win the game and you want to look at the quality of the performance as well. It was important for our confidence to win the game and it was even more important to have a big part in the game with quality.
“It is a comfort to me to see the kind of quality we produced for some long patches in the game.”
Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta are both predicting more Arsenal silverware success after they picked up the Community Shield.
The Welsh midfielder grabbed the Gunners’ second goal as they put the Premier League champions to the sword, putting their ‘big game’ problems from last season behind them.
Arsenal lost heavily to Chelsea, Liverpool and their Community Shield opponents during last year’s campaign but Ramsey says they are now ready to fix up their problems to bring more trophies to North London.
“Wembley’s not been a bad place for me or Santi Cazorla so we want to play here every week,” Ramsey said.
“In these games last season we have been guilty of conceding early on. It’s difficult enough so it was important today for us to stay in the game, wait for them too open up, and we capitalised on that.”
And Gunners captain Mikel Arteta agreed with his midfield partner.
‘We’re looking very good,’ he said. ‘We’ve made some very good signings and it’s only going to strengthen the team.
‘We’ve got a few still on holiday but you look at the bench and the options are there to change the game. It’s really impressive so hopefully it’s going to be another great season. We’ve started well.’