Wenger won’t rush to judgment

ARSENE WENGER maintains he knows what must be done over the summer to turn Arsenal into champions next season, but insists now is not the time to publicly analyse the Gunners’ shortcomings.

It has been seven years since Patrick Vieira’s Invincibles lifted the Premier League trophy, with any slim title hopes extinguished in brutal fashion with a 3-1 defeat at Stoke on Sunday.

Arsenal’s defensive frailties were exposed again at the Britannia Stadium — notably for the third goal when an awful clearance from Johan Djourou fell straight to Jon Walters, the blunder coming moments after Robin van Persie scored his 20th goal of the season to give the visitors brief hope.

Wenger has been urged to bring in experienced heads during the summer, most notably to help shore up the defence, with the likes of Blackburn’s Chris Samba and Bolton’s Gary Cahill both reported targets.

However, the Arsenal manager insisted now was not the time to talk about what is missing as his team regroup for next weekend’s clash with Aston Villa looking to stay ahead of Manchester City in the bid for automatic Champions League qualification.

“We have our plans and we know what we will do,” said Wenger.

“It is not the best moment to analyse after a disappointing game, but if you analyse all competitions and how we have done, the number of games we have played, we have done well. “We have to take a little bit of distance and make the right analysis of the season.”

Despite failing to last the distance in the title race, losing the Carling Cup final and also suffering early exits from the Champions League to Barcelona and FA Cup at Manchester United, Wenger maintains the campaign has not been a complete failure.

“Many would like to be in the Champions League but it is not enough, certainly, but the season has not been for nothing,” he said.

“It could have been a lot more, but you can see it is the toughest league in the world and we were very close, but we have to add what we miss.”