Tottenham's biggest challenge this season will be to fill Wembley, says Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that Tottenham’s biggest challenge for the season ahead will be ensuring they fill Wembley Stadium every week.

With their new stadium currently under construction, Tottenham are playing all of their home fixtures at the national team stadium this season – a ground at which they have traditionally struggled.

But Wenger thinks that Tottenham’s biggest challenge during the 2017/18 season will be ensuring that they fill out the stadium every single week, especially after their application to play 27 matches at the stadium’s full 90,000 capacity was approved.

“For a while you had the problem of the quality of the pitch but that does not exist anymore. Today the pitch is of a similar quality to everywhere,” Wenger said of Wembley.

“So after that the difficultly is to fill it. It is nothing more. In England we are not used to playing with half a stadium empty.

“So can they fill it in every game? I don’t know. But a full Wembley stadium is fantastic.”

Wenger also offered a transfer update on Riyad Mahrez – a player that both Arsenal and Tottenham have been linked with this summer.

The Leicester winger, who was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year for the 2015/16 season, is eager for a move away from the Midlands this summer and has been the subject of three rejected bids from Italian club Roma, worth a reported £36m.

It was also claimed that Arsenal were interested in signing the 26-year-old, but Wenger said yesterday that he already has a number of similar players in his squad.

“We were never close [to a deaL],” Wenger insisted. “I rate him as a player but we have similar types with Alex Iwobi, Mesut Ozil and now Jack Wilshere back. We have plenty of the same type of player.”