Football
Mattias Karen, Arsenal correspondent 7y

Arsene Wenger: Premier League hasn't met expectations this season

LONDON -- Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has criticised the quality of the Premier League this season, saying it has not lived up to the hype surrounding the arrival of several big-name managers.

Wenger had said in August that the Premier League had become a "world championship of managers" given the presence of top names like Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte, but he feels the first half of the campaign has not met expectations and called on teams -- including his own -- to produce more spectacular games in the second half.

"Overall it was a very promising Premiership with the best managers in the world who are competing, and it promised to be an exceptional year, and until now I think it was disappointing on all levels," Wenger said on Friday at his news conference ahead of Sunday's game against Crystal Palace.

"Because the Premier League has not produced the games that I remembered, and I'm convinced that in the second part of the season, the level and the spectacularity of the league will go up."

The comments, which came without prompting from the journalists in attendance, could possibly be interpreted as a challenge to league leaders Chelsea to turn on the style more in 2017.

Chelsea are on a 12-game winning streak that has seen them concede just two goals, with four of the victories coming by a 1-0 margin. Mourinho, now with Manchester United, recently said his former club will be hard to catch because "they score one goal and they win ... They don't care what people say, what people think. They just want to win."

Wenger's comments could also be a reaction to Monday's game against West Brom, when Arsenal struggled to break down an ultra-defensive Tony Pulis side before Olivier Giroud netted a late winner.

Asked to explain why he thought the league has not produced the quality expected, Wenger said: "Maybe as well because there is a difference between the favourite teams and the smaller teams [that means] they just defend, some teams.

"I just feel there is more in the league than we've produced. I include myself in that, and you always feel that a Premier League year is always remembered by two or three games that were absolutely spectacular, and at the moment we have not produced that as a league. And I include myself.

"I just feel that we have the best managers in the world in this league and I'm sure in the second part of the season when everybody is ready to go for it -- it's not anymore 'wait and see,' it's 'go and take now' -- we will see spectacular games that we have not completely produced.

"It's a very good league, every game is absolutely super difficult, but the spectacular side that everybody expected until now has not come out of this league yet."

Arsenal trail Chelsea by nine points in fourth place, and could also see Conte's side match their Premier League record of 13 straight wins in a single season if they beat Stoke on Saturday. They could then break the record against Tottenham on Wednesday, in which case Wenger said he would congratulate them on eclipsing his own mark from 2001-02.

"If they do it, it's absolutely marvelous, because nobody expected that at the start of the season, they had quite a dodgy start," Wenger said. "If they do it, you can only say well done. Records are there to be beaten. And if somebody does better than you, you have to acknowledge it and say well done."

Wenger also called Chelsea, who are currently six points clear, "super favourites" for the title but said they could still slip up.

"It's theirs to lose as we say here in England. They can still lose it. At the moment they have won it, but they can still lose it because it's still a long way to go and very difficult for everybody," Wenger said.

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