The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– Ready for a fight –
They badly need a victory to restore belief and defeat at the Amex Stadium against a side promoted last season and currently engaged in a fight to avoid an immediate return to the Championship would increase the level of dissent to new levels.
“I’m always ready for a fight. I’m of course very disappointed but I’ve experienced these situations before,” Wenger said.
“I’ve face difficult situations in my life and it helps when you know how to deal with that.”
Arsenal remain unbeaten in 34 games against newly-promoted sides but Wenger admits the challenge of maintaining that record is getting harder.
“They are tougher, they have bigger squads,” Wenger said.
“Every team who is in the second part of the Premier League table can buy the players everywhere, so when I go down sometimes to these teams, the best indication is who is sitting on the bench.
“You see that even in the teams in the second part of the table, you have six international players.”
Brighton’s 4-1 defeat of fellow strugglers Swansea gave Chris Hughton’s side a timely boost and opened up a four-point gap to the bottom three.
So far, though, they have failed to take a point off any of the top six and left-back Gaeten Bong believes the visit of the Gunners presents an opportunity to end that run.
“They will provide us with a good test, but all we can do is play our game,” he said.
“If Swansea can beat Arsenal, then I think we can do it as well.
“Some people might say it’s a good time to play them, but they were saying the same thing when we played Chelsea, and they beat us.”
