Source: Team_Talk
Gunners must show winning mentality - AW
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has challenged his young Gunners side to show they are winners every time they step out onto the pitch.[LNB] Gunners captain Cesc Fabregas, who will miss Saturday's Premier League clash against Birmingham at Emirates Stadium with a hamstring problem, expressed his concerns in a Spanish radio interview of the need for his team-mates' "wealth of quality" to be translated into a "winning mentality" and deliver some long-overdue silverware.[LNB]Arsenal suffered successive league defeats before the international break, losing at home 3-2 to West Brom and then going down 2-0 at Chelsea to leave them some seven points behind the leaders, only just clinging on to fourth place.[LNB]Wenger feels once that illusive first trophy comes, the last being the FA Cup in 2005, then more will follow.[LNB]"It can be misinterpreted. I think everybody has a great desire to win, but you get a winning mentality as well when you have won," Wenger said when asked to respond to his captain's outspoken comments.[LNB]"What is at stake for us is not the desire to win, but to make history and to win trophies.[LNB]"As long as you have not won you are not completely certain that you can do it - but that does not mean that you lack the desire to win.[LNB]"This team has a great desire to win, but you have to show it week in week out.[LNB]"This life, at the top level today, in the best league in the world, is to turn up every single game at full cylinders."[LNB]Wenger is counting on his team to produce a response against the Blues, when his attacking options will be bolstered by the return to fitness of strikers Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner.[LNB]"We were not mentally sharp from the start against West Brom, and we have to make sure tomorrow that we start the game with a strong attitude," he said.[LNB]"The regret we have at Chelsea is that it was still possible for us to make a result with all those players out.[LNB]"That can give us belief and make us think we have a bright future.[LNB]"You know you want to win your games, but in the Premier League you do not get away with 95% focus - you have to be at your best or you don't win your games."[LNB]While Wenger feels the title race is far from over, despite the defending champions' current clear advantage, the Arsenal manager accepts there can be little more margin for error.[LNB]"We have a lot of encouragement from the game at Chelsea and we want to use the positives - but we are seven points behind and we cannot waste more points.[LNB]"The feeling I have is that Chelsea can drop points and it will be down to who is the most consistent team."[LNB]Wenger will take charge of his 800th match on Saturday.[LNB]However, the Frenchman, who turns 61 later this month, maintains a positive result would be the only cause for celebration.[LNB]"What is important is that I focus on the result of the game tomorrow - it is not a birthday game, it is a very important game for us in the league," said Wenger, in charge of the Gunners since September 1996.[LNB]"I hope, and am convinced, that everyone will be highly focused. It is a big game for us."
