Wenger: Pressure affecting skipper

Manager Arsene Wenger believes Thomas Vermaelen could be feeling the weight of the Arsenal captaincy.

The Belgian international was given the armband after Robin van Persie was sold to Manchester United.

However, the usually reliable centre-half has allowed a few errors to creep into his game — most notably last weekend at Old Trafford where a poor clearance went straight to the Dutch striker, who fired United into the lead after just three minutes.

In his post-match interviews with French TV following the 2-1 defeat, Wenger admitted Vermaelen’s error had been “unwelcome”, adding “the big defenders don’t make this kind of error”.

With Andre Santos taken out of the firing line, Vermaelen switched to left-back for the midweek Champions League trip to Schalke, and was unfortunate to deflect a goal-bound effort from Ibrahim Afellay into the net as the Germans fought back for a 2-2 draw.

The 26-year-old is likely to return to the heart of the Gunners’ rearguard against Fulham this afternoon, probably alongside Per Mertesacker in what had looked a promising partnership.

Wenger admitted Vermaelen needed a morale boost. He said: “Physically Thomas is outstanding, but what has happened to him in recent weeks has affected his confidence. You put more pressure on yourself when you are the captain. You want to be the best player in the team.

“However, you cannot be a defender and not make a mistake — but if you make one, then maybe you put a bit more pressure on yourself then because you think ‘I am the captain and I cannot afford that’.

“Thomas is completely involved in the game — he breathes his football from morning until night, he thinks about it [all the time] and wants to do well.”

Lukas Podolski is another player suffering from a dip in confidence. After a fine start to life at Arsenal, scoring his first Premier League goal at Liverpool and then netting in the next two games, the German international has often been on the fringes of the action for long spells.

Despite Podolski’s indications he would rather be deployed in a more central role than on the left, Wenger is happy enough with the efforts of the former Cologne man. “In recent games he has been a bit less fresh, he is not used to working at that intensity, when you come to England it is a shock,” said Wenger.

Jol, meanwhile, has demanded his Fulham side play more like “warriors” to keep their impressive run of four matches unbeaten going today. Days after the Cottagers’ 2-2 draw with Everton, Jol was still fuming at the way they allowed themselves to be completely dominated in a home match before getting out of jail with a stoppage-time equaliser. The Dutchman warns he will not tolerate that today.

“When we don’t have the ball, we don’t have these warriors, probably, and that is what we’re working on,” Jol said. “That is what we saw against Everton, for example. “We want to be better off the ball. And if you are good on the ball, you can cause any team a problem. So, hopefully, we can do better than what we did against Everton.”

Wenger, meanwhile, is hopeful he will be able to included goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny in the Arsenal squad for the first time since mid-September, though Vito Mannone looks set to hold onto the jersey today even when the Poland international is fully fit again.

Arsenal will be without suspended midfielder Jack Wilshere after his red card at Old Trafford.