Arsenal’s players will show how much they care in Sunday’s north London derby, according to Arsene Wenger.
Wenger’s switch to a three-man defence has brought an upturn in results following a nightmare February and March which included a 10-2 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
The Gunners boss repeatedly defended his players’ attitude during that run, and he has no concerns about their stomach for the fight against a Tottenham side still fighting for the Premier League title.
“The combative side, yes, of course, will be right,” he said. “In this kind of derby where you know commitment will be 100 per cent on both sides. To be capable to fight, yes, will be a very big part.
“It’s true that for a while, the first Bayern game and Chelsea game [a 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge on February 4] was a big knock. For a while we were a bit like a boxer who got put on the floor twice.
“We lost a little bit and people interpreted that as them not caring. No. Maybe it’s because they care very much that we were like that – shocked. We were shocked.
“I think the players care. The players have a good mentality. I love the attitude of this team. There’s a good atmosphere compared to one or two months ago.”
Wenger has used Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez as the lone striker in his new formation in the past three games, while Danny Welbeck is another option for Sunday.
Welbeck has been used from the bench in the past two games, Wednesday’s win over Leicester and last weekend’s FA Cup success against Manchester City.
Wenger said: “Recently he has not practised a lot because he had a pain in his toe and needed to be stopped from training.
“I don’t play him at the moment regularly because he’s not fully consistently present in training. Yes, certainly [it is frustrating].”
