adminLONDON. — Arsene Wenger has warned Arsenal’s title rivals that he is armed with his most dangerous attacking unit for years.
Wenger claims Arsenal proved they can cut it with the best in the business again by thrashing English champions Manchester City at Wembley.After his side thumped Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield on Sunday, Wenger said: “Three, four, five years ago we lost a big player every year. In the last two years we’ve added players, like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
“I have more attacking options than I’ve had for a long time.”
The impressive victory also suggested Arsenal can reverse last year’s poor results against their main rivals and finally mount a sustained title challenge.
Wenger added: “Last year we were very consistent against teams outside the top six and not consistent against top-six teams. The year before it was the reverse. It’s hoped that this year it will be right on both sides.”
Goals from Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud sealed victory and Wenger said: “To win today gives us a positive platform. You want to win the game and you want to look at the quality of the performance as well. It was important for our confidence to win the game and it was even more important to have a big part in the game with quality.
“It is a comfort to me to see the kind of quality we produced for some long patches in the game.”
Sunday’s win at Wembley came without World Cup winners Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski, while Theo Walcott is set to return to full fitness at the end of next month following a serious knee injury.
Wenger, who confirmed that Mikel Arteta will captain the club following Thomas Vermaelen’s departure for Barcelona, is set to cool his search for a new centre-back following the emergence of Calum Chambers.
The 19-year-old made the breakthrough at Southampton as a right back but Wenger sees Chambers’ long-term future at centre half.
The £16million man was excellent and Wenger believes he is ready to challenge first-choice centre-backs Laurent Koscielny, who sustained a slight achilles injury at Wembley, and Mertesacker.
The Gunners are on the lookout for a new central defender to replace Vermaelen following his £15m move to the Nou Camp.
But Wenger said: “In my head Chambers is among the best three centre-backs I have. If I can find another one I will do it, but to find another one of that quality will not be easy.”
Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta are both predicting more Arsenal silverware success after they picked up the Community Shield by beating Manchester City 3-0 at Wembley.
The Welsh midfielder grabbed the Gunners’ second goal as they put the English Premier League champions to the sword, putting their “big game” problems from last season behind them.
Arsenal lost heavily to Chelsea, Liverpool and their Community Shield opponents during last year’s campaign but Ramsey says they are now ready to fix up their problems to bring more trophies to North London.
“Wembley’s not been a bad place for me or Santi (Cazorla) so we want to play here every week,” Ramsey said.
“In these games last season we have been guilty of conceding early on. It’s difficult enough so it was important today for us to stay in the game, wait for them too open up, and we capitalised on that.”
And Ramsey says Arsenal are in the best shape he has seen in his six years at The Emirates.
“We’re more than capable — the team has a good team spirit. We need to improve on the big games so hopefully now we’ve learnt our lesson, we can go into this season and have a good go.
“I’m feeling good. The atmosphere has been the best since I’ve been at Arsenal. We really get on well, we want to work hard for each other and the club is on the up now so everybody’s really excited.
“I feel like after we’ve won the FA Cup, now this, the club is on the up so hopefully we can continue this success in the coming years.” — Mailonline.
Online Reporter