Arsene Wenger sticks to principles and belief in Arsenal
Friday 2 October 2015 23:07, UK
Arsene Wenger says he would be "slaughtered" if he ever abandoned his principles or his belief Arsenal can win the title.
The Arsenal manager took the rare step of threatening to cut short a press conference on Friday after a question about Jose Mourinho and a repeated grilling on his decision to pick David Ospina against Olympiakos in midweek.
And Wenger was again forced on the defensive when asked, ahead of the Super Sunday game against leaders Manchester United, whether he sees his side as genuine Premier League title challengers this season.
He said: "If I tell you now that we are three points behind Man United, playing Man United at home and I don't believe that we can win the Premier League, what do you tell me? You will slaughter me.
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"I don't see why we should be absolutely down, we are on the back of three or four good results in the Premier League. We had a disappointment in the Champions League, we have to analyse it well.
"It was disappointing to lose but overall every competition is different. You have to go in a different competition in a different state of mind and we have to be inspired by what we did at Leicester."
Arsenal won 5-2 at Leicester as they came out on top of an attacking game and recovered from a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea in their previous league game.
Wenger insists he would be betraying the spirit of the Premier League if he were to ask his side to adopt a more defensive outlook.
"The way the teams are structured and the way the Premier League is structured, you want to see people attack. It is part of the success of the Premier League," he added.
"If you play offensive football and you lose everybody kills you, but if you sit for 10 games with a team which refuses to play then you will fall asleep and everybody says: 'why don't you attack?'
"When you don't win the games, you are wrong, not only for the reasons that people analyse. You have to accept that. If you attack and you lose the game then everybody says: 'you are naive', and it is true.
"But when Barcelona win the European Cup and attack from everywhere, we say: 'oh, what a fantastic game, it is absolutely marvellous'."
