adminLONDON. — Both reeling from embarrassing weekend results in the Barclays English Premier League, Arsenal and Manchester United will each be determined to restore credibility when they meet at the Emirates Stadium tonight. The match kicks-off at 9:45pm. While Arsenal ceded first place to Chelsea after being blown away in a 5-1 defeat at Liverpool on Saturday, United could only record a 2-2 draw at home to Fulham, who had started the game at the foot of the table.
Arsenal’s capitulation ended a run of 10 games without defeat in all competitions, but manager Arsene Wenger can at least console himself that it left his side only a point off the summit.
Promising that his team will deliver an improved performance tonight, Wenger yesterday spoke positively about getting the season back on track.
“We will respond tomorrow (tonight) in a very positive way, I’m convinced of that. We know our form at the Emirates will be decisive. I think the Liverpool game was an accident and we want to treat it like that. “We’ve been very stable until now defensively, we have to consider how well we have done until now. Winning the Premier League will be a big achievement when we do it but we have a long way to go.”
“We’ve just come back from a 10-game unbeaten run. You cannot consider one game as the trend or the pattern of our season. It’s an accident, not a welcome (one) of course, a very disappointing one but a successful season is decided by how you respond to that.
“We tend always to forget how good we are when we are not successful. It’s important that we remind them (the team) we have done very well until now and we have worked very hard to be in that position.
“I love this group of players. They deserve success and I think they will respond in a very positive way.”Wenger spoke out in defence of record signing Mesut Ozil, who produced an anonymous performance at Liverpool that was in keeping with some below-par recent displays.
“He didn’t have the best of games on Saturday, but that can happen,” Wenger said of the Germany star.“He works very hard to adapt to the physical level of the Premier League and for me he is an exceptional player. I wouldn’t like to put too much pressure on him because he has been a top-class player until now.
“He knows when he is not good enough he will get questioned. That is normal.”
Silver linings are not quite as easy to find for United, who trail fourth-place Liverpool by nine points and therefore seem destined to miss out on a place in next season’s Champions League. — AFP.
Online Reporter