Arsenal travel to South Wales to face Swansea City on Saturday afternoon after the humiliating 3-0 defeat in the Capital One Cup against Sheffield Wednesday. Manager Arsene Wenger spoke in the press conference and stated that Serge Gnabry will not be called back to the Emirates from his loan spell at West Brom, though Tony Pulis said he was “not at the right level” to play for the Baggies.
The French manager has indirectly told his player to change his view of Pulis and learn from the experience.
Further, when asked about Swansea boss Garry Monk, he said, “I think he has done extremely well. I’m surprised that he has been questioned.”
Talking about young Joel Campbell, he said, “I have been very impressed with him. His desire to improve has been fantastic. He can play centre-forward as well. I think he can be a big help in the next two or three months.”
On Garde and how he could be better than Sherwood, Wenger said, “Honestly I have a lot of respect for all the managers at Villa. I believe Sherwood was not given time. Lambert was not given time. I don’t know why. Remi is an intelligent man who is now experienced. He will try to get his ideas across and hopefully he can work. They have five or six French players who have not all had an impact.”
The Gunners have scored 1,999 goals under the Frenchman, who was asked his remaining objectives, to which he said, “I want to continue to develop our results and the way we play football and the club as well. I want to play football as close to perfection as possible.”
When asked if he could have rested players against Swansea to prepare for Bayern Munich next week, he stated, “Not at all”.
Further, on Remi Garde he added, “I am convinced he is a front runner. He has some problems to sort out with his assistants who work with Lyon. I believe it is a challenge he should take. Advice? You know our job is about the personality and having the courage to live with your ideas.”
Talking about how his midfield would lineup, he said, “My options are Campbell or put another defensive midfielder such as Flamini or put Cazorla on the flank. I still have 24 hours to decide.”
Asked about the injuries to Walcott and Ox, Wenger said, “One will be 20 days, the other a bit longer. But we have shown we can deal with injuries.”
When asked about the fact that eight players out, he said, “That is always the question you have to answer with injuries. You have to analyse every single case, but also you can’t over-analyse. Injuries happen.”
He concluded by saying, “We played a different team in midweek. We are now focussed to do well at Swansea. We are on a strong run in the Premier League. Last year Swansea were the only team to beat us twice so it is a good challenge. We need a strong defensive performance.”