EPL: Get the job done - Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger has told Arsenal to approach
the Premier League run-in without fear of
failure as they fight Everton for fourth place.
Arsenal needed penalties to avoid the
nightmare of an FA Cup semi-final defeat
against Championship side Wigan on
Saturday - hours after Everton won at
Sunderland to move two points clear in the
race for fourth.
In the aftermath of that Wembley win Lukas
Podolski said it would be "a disaster" if
Arsenal were to miss out on Champions
League football for the first time since 1997.
But ahead of West Ham's visit on Tuesday
night Wenger urged his players to forget the
repercussions of failure and concentrate on
getting the job done in the next five games.
"When you are in a semi-final and you win it
releases a little bit of pressure on the team,
but we want to bounce back in the Premier
League," he said.
"We know that one of the main targets - the
main target - is the Premier League, and
therefore we want to finish strong. We have a
battle with Everton and it's now down to
consistency in the final games.
"Five victories is the target. Do you need it?
Nobody knows, but the target is of course to
win every game.
"We just want to not imagine the
consequences of not doing it, what you want
is just to focus on doing it."
Arsenal's league form is poor with just one
win in six games, and Podolski, Alex Oxlade-
Chamberlain and Nacho Monreal will all need
assessing before the West Ham game.
Several key players remain out, but Laurent
Koscielny and Tomas Rosicky could be back
and Wenger expects to have Mesut Ozil fit for
the weekend trip to Hull.
Wenger said: "We are slowly getting our
players back, so the squad is not so depleted
any more.
"I believe that Everton have difficult games
and we have difficult games, but we want to
focus now on what we know we can do.
"We have a more complete squad and we
want to win our games, no matter what
Everton does. We want to finish in a strong
way.
"We can finish the season well - we can finish
in the top four, we can win the FA Cup - so it's
down to how united we will be until the end of
the season, and focused together."
the Premier League run-in without fear of
failure as they fight Everton for fourth place.
Arsenal needed penalties to avoid the
nightmare of an FA Cup semi-final defeat
against Championship side Wigan on
Saturday - hours after Everton won at
Sunderland to move two points clear in the
race for fourth.
In the aftermath of that Wembley win Lukas
Podolski said it would be "a disaster" if
Arsenal were to miss out on Champions
League football for the first time since 1997.
But ahead of West Ham's visit on Tuesday
night Wenger urged his players to forget the
repercussions of failure and concentrate on
getting the job done in the next five games.
"When you are in a semi-final and you win it
releases a little bit of pressure on the team,
but we want to bounce back in the Premier
League," he said.
"We know that one of the main targets - the
main target - is the Premier League, and
therefore we want to finish strong. We have a
battle with Everton and it's now down to
consistency in the final games.
"Five victories is the target. Do you need it?
Nobody knows, but the target is of course to
win every game.
"We just want to not imagine the
consequences of not doing it, what you want
is just to focus on doing it."
Arsenal's league form is poor with just one
win in six games, and Podolski, Alex Oxlade-
Chamberlain and Nacho Monreal will all need
assessing before the West Ham game.
Several key players remain out, but Laurent
Koscielny and Tomas Rosicky could be back
and Wenger expects to have Mesut Ozil fit for
the weekend trip to Hull.
Wenger said: "We are slowly getting our
players back, so the squad is not so depleted
any more.
"I believe that Everton have difficult games
and we have difficult games, but we want to
focus now on what we know we can do.
"We have a more complete squad and we
want to win our games, no matter what
Everton does. We want to finish in a strong
way.
"We can finish the season well - we can finish
in the top four, we can win the FA Cup - so it's
down to how united we will be until the end of
the season, and focused together."
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