Wenger Christmas day interview

On whether the title is now between Chelsea and Man City:

Let’s see how the schedule goes over Christmas. We’ll have a much better idea at the beginning of January. It can still change. That’s why I say, ‘let’s wait’. Will it only be Chelsea and Man City? Today you can say maybe, but it is still a long way.

Chelsea play Champions League, Man City do as well, then you have the FA Cup and Chelsea play in the League Cup. There is still a lot to go. But what is for sure, the teams like us and around us, they need to be massively consistent to have a chance to come back.

On injuries:

I don’t think we have gone backwards in the quality of our squad because if you look at the five players that we bought, you cannot say that one of the five players is a failure.

I can’t deny that we are behind much more than last year because we have had a depleted squad since the start of the season, and the fact that we got so many important injuries at the back cost us too much. We lost Debuchy and Koscielny at the same period for three months. It’s too much.

After the World Cup, we had too many players who came back not ready to compete again and then you look at the number of players that we lost when they just came back to their best. We had no Walcott, no Wilshere, no Özil, no Debuchy, no Koscielny, no Arteta, no Giroud for long periods.

Whether he feels he can compete with Chelsea this season:

I think it’s better I don’t talk too much and we perform on the pitch at the moment.

On having a winter break:

Is it a coincidence that the German national team has always done well in the big tournaments when England hasn’t? It is just Germany who has the longest winter break among the big countries. They always do well in tournaments because they have refreshed players.

[Touring instead of having a break] is the problem. You don’t go on tour, but you give two weeks off and then you prepare like the German teams do. They stopped on Saturday, they come back on the beginning of January.