Title ours to win, says Wenger
In what has become a frustrating trait of the Gunners’ season, they failed to build on victory over championship rivals Chelsea by being held to a 2-2 draw at Wigan on Wednesday night.
As such, Wenger’s men remain third, two points behind United, who have a match in hand, and Manchester City, who have played two games more, while Chelsea clawed back a couple of points after ending their poor run of form by beating Bolton.
Nevertheless, Wenger has complete faith that his young team can deliver in 2011 — with a trip to Birmingham today swiftly followed by the visit of City on January 5.
“It is Arsenal’s title to win. We have to go on a run and be consistent,” Wenger declared when asked whether the championship was now United’s to throw away.
“The only thing we’ve learnt from the first six months is that the team who will be the most consistent, with great emotional stamina and resolve, will win. It’s a league with a lot of ups and downs and the team that deals the best with that will certainly win it.”
Wenger insisted: “We have always been strong mentally, but we have not been as mature as we are now. I think we have courage, intelligence and talent. To be capable of putting these three ingredients together in every single game will be decisive.”
Arsenal could be clear at the summit but for home defeats to West Brom, Newcastle and rivals Tottenham, when they led 2-0 at half-time.
Yet with his team in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup and also set for a mouth-watering Champions League tie against Barcelona, Wenger maintains there are plenty of positives.
“I feel we are on a good track and that we are in a strong position,” the Arsenal manager, who last won a trophy in 2005, said.
“Our away record is fantastic but our home record needs improvement. We have made improvements and there is a lot more to come from this team.”
The Gunners boss accepts his team must cut out the kind of mistakes made at the DW Stadium though, where they were leading 2-1 against 10 men before being pegged back.
“We have the individual quality but we have to take more initiative on the communication side,” he said. “I felt people are not informed enough - when they are alone, they might control the ball instead of letting it out. A team is always on the search to improve and communicating is one of the natural ways to achieve that.”
Arsenal are “not close to signing anybody”, with Wenger also ruling out a January move for David Beckham and confirming that striker Carlos Vela could be farmed out to get some games. Centre-back Havard Nordtveit has joined Borussia Monchengladbach in a permanent deal.
Wenger, though, expects City to be in the transfer market again, with a reported €40 million deal in the pipeline for Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko.
“The good thing is that if City buy someone, they have to take somebody out of their team who is already a top-level player,” he said.
“Can they add more quality? Certainly, because they have the chequebook to do it. Will it make them more dangerous? Certainly, but they are already a threat for the championship.”
For his part, Alex McLeish will put the accent on quality rather than quantity when he looks to bolster his Birmingham squad during the January transfer window.
A striker is a priority for McLeish who has already been linked with Robbie Keane, Ryan Babel and Jay Bothroyd.
“We’ve got some targets and we are working on them,” the Scot said. “We brought in a specialist number one in Ben Foster last summer and he has performed extremely well. Now we are looking for specialists in other positions.
“What I think you can do sometimes is buy four or five players when one of real quality would do. We’ve got some targets, we are working on them and we’re in talks about one or two things,” he concluded.
NOTTINGHAM FOREST manager Billy Davies has admitted he is disappointed not to have been able to extend the loan spell of Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey.
The 20-year-old’s loan spell expires after Forest’s tip to Ipswich on Monday and he will return to Arsenal due to an injury to Abou Diaby.
Davies told BBC Radio Nottingham: “If that’s the case it’s a pity we never got more use out of him.
“He has certainly been a joy to work with and a credit to himself and club.”
Forest were hopeful of extending Ramsey’s stay at The City Ground, but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger wants him back at the Premier League club due to Diaby’s calf strain.
“Ramsey will definitely come back. He did not get the number of games (at Forest) that he, or we, wanted because of the snow,” Wenger said.
“He’s not completely ready yet but he should be in February.”
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