By Richard Clarke
Arsène Wenger is refusing to feel the pressure of leading the title race from the front.
The Arsenal manager takes his side to Birmingham on Saturday
well aware that a victory would take them eight points clear at the
top of the table, albeit temporarily. In the last week, the
Emirates Stadium side have been knocked out of the FA Cup and given
themselves an uphill task to get past Milan in the Champions
League.
The emphasis is back on the Premier League this weekend, the trophy
Arsenal now appear most likely to win.
However Wenger believes Arsenal have already surpassed wider expectations this term and is not prepared to have the goalposts moved on him now.
'I'm not really anxious," he said at Friday's pre-match press conference. "We were under real pressure at the start of the season, much worse than we are now, because everybody said we were absolutely nobody.
"The players stood up and we have absolutely nothing to lose; everybody has written this team off at the start and now we are in a good position, so why should we suddenly become nervous?"
Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 22 Feb 2008
