Monday 4 January 2016 10:58, UK
Arsene Wenger is confident his Arsenal side have the mental strength to challenge for the Premier League title this season.
The Gunners moved two points clear at the top of the table at the weekend and Wenger believes Saturday's 1-0 win over Newcastle is proof his team have acquired a resilience they perhaps lacked in the past.
Arsenal last won the league in 2004, two years before relocating from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, and Wenger says the current crop have a charisma that sets them apart from his teams of the intervening decade.
"I think we are more experienced than the teams I had when I moved into the stadium here," Wenger told the club's website.
"On our day we could play everybody off the park and when you had to dig deep, you experienced it was a bit more difficult. It was different.
"We were more questioned on that aspect than the way we played football. Now, [in terms of] the experience, the quality of their attitude, the team always has the charisma.
"If you look at the team as a unit, it is like a person. If you look at your team like a person and the vibes that are coming out - you can sense in this job if you feel it or not.
"I must say [you see] another aspect of your team in a game like Newcastle. It is more the mental aspect - you fight, don't panic and wait for your chance."
"I also believe that everyone else's organisation has improved. What is even more [surprising] is physically you won games in maybe the last 20 minutes when you were superior technically. That is not the case anymore.
"When you go forward, the team against you in transition always has the resources to come out and kill you. Look at the players who come on. They always have the quality to finish you off when you go for it. That is something new."
In Per Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Petr Cech and Olivier Giroud, Wenger has an experienced core of senior players who have won titles at their former clubs, which should stand Arsenal in good stead as the season builds to its climax.
Giroud, Arsenal's top scorer with 10 league goals so far, says that experience will play a key part in whether the Gunners will win the league.
"To be a champion, I know what it takes because I was a champion with Montpellier," he said. "You need a bit of luck and sometimes you cannot play a fantastic game.
"We have a good mixture of experienced players and young players and the older ones bring confidence to the youngest and lead them."
