Wenger on Elneny, Alexis, Lacazette and Cech

After we beat Bayern Munich on penalties in Shanghai on Wednesday, Arsene Wenger was asked about a number of first-team players.



The boss answered questions about Mohamed Elneny, Petr Cech, Alexis and Alexandre Lacazette and your can read a transcript of what he said below:

on Elneny playing at centre back…

He played at centre back because our centre backs, one was sick with food poisoning - Mertesacker, we had to send him back to the hotel - and Koscielny had a problem with his back so he was not available. 

on Lacazette playing through the middle even when Alexis is back…

Lacazette will play centre forward and Giroud was sick as well and had to stay at the hotel. Alexis plays where he plays always, on the left, sometimes on the right but normally on the left.

on why he took Cech off…

Because I want to give a chance to the other goalkeepers so they have experience as well. I can only do it in preseason that I can take a goalkeeper off after 70 minutes. In fact the goalkeeper who came on played well so I think it was a good night for both goalkeepers.

on whether Cech will be first-choice goalkeeper…

They all fight for it but at the moment he is doing very well. Ospina will play against Chelsea on Saturday, and we will do the same against them - Ospina for 70 minutes and then 20 minutes for Martinez. Cech will rest on Saturday.

on the performances against Bayern last season…

I don’t think in any way that this kind of game wipes out what happened last season. We all remember that. We had a nightmare in the second halves [of those games] because if you take the results of the first games, we go through. It is different here, but it is still good to win a game against Bayern because it can help the team grow in confidence and to think that we can continue to prepare well in a good mood. We are now 10 or 11 days away so it helps to push on with the last step in our two weeks preparations, so on that front, mentally, it’s good.

on whether the team has a winning mentality…

I don’t want to go into any conclusions today. Both teams changed many players, what is important is that we can prepare properly. We worked very hard over the last few days and what is important is to have another go physically. After that, let’s continue to prepare and show a winning mentality when the season starts.