Arsenal face crucial week just two games into the League season;Battle to keep Sanchez

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has certainly had a lot of crucial weeks in his 21 years in charge of the Emirate club. The season might just be two weeks old, but the next couple of days could prove as demanding as any in Wenger’s career.

Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League loss at Stoke City showed evidence of the Emirate Club’s perpetual problems. The North Londoners needed leadership on the pitch of play, players were played in unsuitable positions, and the team lacked a killer instinct up front.

The 67-year-old Frenchman, as usual, blamed the loss on officiating as diminution but there was an ‘old air’ about Arsenal. It is absurd to imagine the Gunners challenging for the title this season.

Next Sunday, Arsene Wenger takes his team to the Red half of Merseyside. The French tactician expects Chilean Alexis Sanchez to be fit for selection after recuperating from an abdominal injury. That is if the former Barcelona man is still at the Emirate Stadium.

The Manchester City target wants to leave the London club, but manager Wenger insists the big forward is staying at the club. The Arsenal manager at some point equally forthright in claiming that Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie would stay. They left.