Wenger tells new-boy Cygan to toughen up for Premiership

ARSENE WENGER has told new-boy Pascal Cygan to toughen up or expect a battering from the Premiership's hard men in a month's time.

The 28-year-old centre-back, signed for £2.1million from French outfit Lille last week, made his Gunners' bow in their 6-1 friendly demolition of Conference side Stevenage.

Cygan stands 6ft 5in tall and looked assured against opposition five divisions below the Double-winning men from Highbury but Wenger believes the Frenchman must show more muscle if he is to live up to his billing as the next Tony Adams.

The 35-year-old Arsenal legend is expected to shortly announce his retirement.

This leaves the only further opportunities Cygan has to sample English football before Arsenal's Premiership campaign kicks off at home to Birmingham on August 18 are the August 6 date with Conference minnows Barnet, and the August 11 Community Shield showdown with Liverpool.

Wenger's men jet out to Austria on their pre-season tour next week and the boss admitted: "Pascal needs to toughen up a bit because the English game is much harder (than the French).

"Last night's match was a good learning process, but he knows what is expected of him. He's a very useful player for Arsenal. He has potential, a good reading of the game and I believe he will improve from game to game.

"However, there's no such thing as a first-choice player in our team. We showed that last year, when we used 20 players to win the championship."

As well as Cygan, Edu also impressed against Stevenage and Wenger revealed the growing stature the 24-year-old Brazilian is held in at Highbury.

"When he didn't play for a long, long time, I was thinking about letting him go even though I never had any doubts about his qualities.

"But if a guy cannot show how good he is, you have to think can he make it or not?

"I gave him a chance at the right period of last season. And now he's slowly becoming an important player. That shows that sometimes you need to be very, very patient."

Meanwhile, striker Thierry Henry has given his biggest hint yet that he intends to commit his long-term future to the club.

Henry was top scorer in the Premiership with 24 goals last season and insists his next aim is to win the Champions League with the Gunners, and looking forward to playing in the new stadium at Ashburton Grove not due to be ready until 2006.

He told www.arsenal.com: "I am so happy at Arsenal and I definitely want to play in the new stadium.

"What we did at Arsenal last year was incredible and we deserved to win the Double. We played good football. Now the big thing is to win the Champions League."