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Alexis Sànchez
Arsenal’s Alexis Sánchez scored a vital goal in their Champions League play-off win against Besiktas in August 2014. Photograph: Alex James/JMP/Rex Shutterstock
Arsenal’s Alexis Sánchez scored a vital goal in their Champions League play-off win against Besiktas in August 2014. Photograph: Alex James/JMP/Rex Shutterstock

Arsène Wenger wants Old Trafford win to avoid European play-offs

This article is more than 8 years old

Arsenal have faced Champions League play-offs in seven of last nine seasons
Wenger admits early European games harm Premier League form
Alexis Sànchez breaks Besiktas hearts in play-off

At Arsenal, and on more occasions than Arsène Wenger would care to remember, it has been a focal point for early-season stress, the elephant in the dressing room, stomping around, spreading unease: the club have contested the Champions League play-off in seven of the past nine seasons and, although they have always advanced into the group phase, it is difficult to quantify just how much it has sapped the squad, both mentally and physically.

Wenger had a try on Friday. The manager talked of the tension and the pressure, of the dire consequences of failure that can nag away at the players and how it could not fail to have a bearing on the team’s desire to make a fast start in the Premier League.

Udinese 2011 is the one that sticks in Wenger’s mind. He remembers the stifling heat on the night of the second leg in Italy how players such as Medhi Benatia and Kwadwo Asamoah made the Serie A club such powerful opponents and, more than anything, the relief after Arsenal had squeaked home. They won 3-1 on aggregate, with Wojciech Szczesny saving a vital penalty. The payback would come four days later. Arsenal went to Manchester United in the league and were walloped 8-2.

Wenger goes back to Old Trafford on Sunday and the Champions League play-off forms the back story. Arsenal are eager to dodge it for a change and they would do so with a win, as it would ensure that they finish above United in the top three. A draw, too, would be a positive result for Wenger’s team and even a defeat ought not to derail them. Arsenal would then need four points from their final two matches – at home to Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion – to make sure of the top three.

There was a time when Arsenal v United was the game of the season; a heavyweight clash for the championship. Wenger said he had “good, fantastic and very bad memories” of Old Trafford, with the fantastic being the 1-0 win in May 2002 that secured the title. The race for third place does not have the same ring but, to Wenger, there is still something meaningful at stake.

“It’s very important for your season preparations not to have that kind of stress of the play-off over your head from the first day you start again,” he said. “We know what it means and we know it’s always tricky, because you can play against teams who are in the middle of their championship when you are in preparation.

“It is the pressure and the consequences of not qualifying that are massive. Every day in practice you have to focus on thinking you have to be ready on that day. When you qualify at Udinese, it is a relief but days later you go to Old Trafford to get exactly the same focus. You know you have more chance to lose the game than to win it, so sometimes you pay the price in the Premier League.”

Wenger said that a play-off – and the uncertainty over whether the club would make the Champions League group phase – could affect the incoming transfer deals. “It is difficult,” he said. “They think that most of the time you’re playing in the Champions League but you’re not sure. The only thing we can say to convince them is that statistically we have always done it.”

There is also the issue of players who may be involved in the Copa América and not be fully up to speed by August. Wenger stands to have three players in Chile for the tournament which kicks off on 11 June – Alexis Sánchez (the hosts), David Ospina (Colombia) and Gabriel Paulista (Brazil). The final is on 4 July and Wenger always likes to give his players at least a four-week break.

If Arsenal win the FA Cup, they will play the Community Shield on 2 August. The new league season begins on 8 August, with the first leg of the Champions League play-off scheduled for 18 or 19 August. “What is even more important now is that the international competitions force you most of the time to start the new season without your players,” Wenger said. “You cannot give them a long enough rest when they have played international games. You also know in England that we have no break in the winter. That is sometimes difficult to deal with.”

Wenger expects United to spend heavily again this summer. “It looks to be that United are on the market,” he said. “Every player I’m offered they are in for.” But Wenger was more concerned with following up March’s FA Cup win at Old Trafford with another “symbolic statement”. “To reproduce that would be psychologically important,” he said. “It would convince us more that we have made progress and can be even stronger next season.”

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