Wenger: We can win everywhere

Four years ago, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal appeared to be on the verge of greatness.

Then, a team with an average age of 24 not only beat AC Milan, the reigning European champions, they eviscerated them at the San Siro with a performance of verve and flair.

Now Wenger faces the charge of having seen his utopian dream slipped into fantasy, as evidenced by the fact that just one of the players who started on that heady night — full-back Bacary Sagna — is set to do so when the teams met again for the first time since this evening.

The men — no, boys — who made their hosts look and feel like pensioners, are gone now. Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alexander Hleb, Mathieu Flamini; that could have been an astonishing team. Instead, they have left, for fresh challenges, the opportunity to win trophies or, in some cases, larger wage packets.

Tonight’s Champions League second round first leg tie is not a season-defining game for the visitors.

Instead, their campaign rests entirely on whether they are still in the competition next season.

If not, then do not expect Robin Van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen or Wojciech Szczesny to spend long thinking about whether the grass is greener elsewhere. Europa League football won’t satisfy them for long.

Yet Wenger, who admitted he wanted to extend Thierry Henry’s loan spell at the club for another fortnight but was prevented doing so by New York Red Bulls — meaning tonight will be the striker’s final game of his second spell at Arsenal, is nothing if not a fighter.

Last night at a packed San Siro press room he refused to give in, refused to yield to the ravages of time and circumstance and refused to accept his team are among the also-rans.

If his team believe him then perhaps great things are still possible.

“We are Arsenal football club and we just try to win the next game,” he said after being told former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti was the latest to write off Arsenal’s chances of winning their first Champions League.

“I believe it is important we are strong everywhere. If I would think we have no chance to win the game I would stay at home.

“I don’t like to waste my time and I believe that what makes football interesting is that you can win everywhere. We have shown we can win everywhere and I have full confidence in this team that we can do it.”

But how does this team compare with that of 2008?

The loss of Fabregas and Samir Nasri in the summer hurt Wenger deeply.

His team have recovered somewhat from their worst start to a season in 58 years, but there is still a long way to go. “When we played here I think Milan won the European Cup the year before and we knocked them out,’’ Wenger, who expressed concerns about the state of the recently re-laid San Siro pitch, said.