Arsene Wenger will speak to Jack Wilshere after the England international was pictured smoking.
The Arsenal manager will keep his discussions with Wilshere private but he explained why he was against smoking when the issue was raised at his pre-match press conference.
"I don't know really what happened [with Jack], I will need to have a chat with him about that," said Wenger. "I disagree completely with that behaviour.
"There are two things: first of all when you are a football player you are an example, and as well you don't do what damages your health.
"First of all when you are a football player you are an example, and as well you don't do what damages your health"
"The fact [is] you can damage your health at home, you can smoke at home and you can drink at home, and nobody sees it, but when you go out socially you as well damage your reputation as an example."
Wenger was reminded that Dutch legend Johan Cruyff used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day, and the Arsenal manager is glad that football and society have moved on.
"Things are different in England especially," he said. "You don't need to convince me [of that] because, I must tell you, I travelled as a football player on coaches after games in France where you didn't see each other, there was so much smoke on the coach!
"Everybody smoked. But times have changed and the health worry, the example, the role model [expected] from the football players has changed as well.
"And I must say as well, English society is very sensitive to smoking, much more than France, more than southern countries. So it is a bit more shocking here than it is somewhere else."
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.