Wenger issues rallying cry after Boro draw

Throughout his career as renowned nurturer of emerging talent, the Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has readily switched emphasis from football coach to father figure in a bid to get the best out of natural talents with fragile personalities.

That ability to marry lessons in life with teaching the beautiful game has brought the best out of three generations of the North London club's brightest stars and now, more than ever, a team in transition requires comforting words as much as carefully chosen tactics.

Arsenal's youngsters appeared crestfallen as they trooped away from Teesside on Saturday having surrendered a lead in a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough and failed to make up meaningful ground on the Premier League's top three.

Leaders Liverpool's unconvincing draw at home to Hull City will only have served to further dispirit Wenger's emerging squad and yet, as the Gunners' manager pointed out, this is no time for criticism and recrimination.

“At this moment in time my team needs encouragement from me,” he said.

“They don't get it anywhere else so it has to come from me,” the Frenchman explained. “Nobody believes in us but we are confident we can show people we still have a role to play in the Premier League title race.

“I believe that we're on the way up,” Wenger insisted after a result that left Arsenal eight points off top spot.

“We are better defensively than we were at the start of the season but I have a very young team which is always under pressure at the moment. It's so important that we keep believing and keep going.”

That self belief is shaken annually at the Riverside Stadium.

Arsenal have failed to win a league game at Middlesbrough since April 2005 and Gareth Southgate, the Teessiders' manager, appears to have unearthed a secret formula for nullifying the Gunners' considerable threat.

“Middlesbrough played well and fought very hard,” added a rueful Wenger.

“In the second-half they defended well and took the pace out of the game.

“Everywhere we go it's exactly the same. I was expecting the same kind of approach from Middlesbrough after last season (when Arsenal lost 2-1) but you never know how well they'll play.

“It's frustrating but they're a team which can beat anyone in this league on their day and we have to accept that.”

“I saw them against Chelsea at home and they didn't look very sharp at all. But against us they defended every inch of the pitch as if their lives depended on it. It's amazing, the difference in teams' performances from week to week.”

Whether Wenger was suggesting Middlesbrough make a special effort to frustrate Arsenal is not clear.

But there is no doubt Southgate holds something of a jinx over a club which has picked up just two points from a possible 12 in four successive visits to the Riverside.

And the home team were certainly well worth the draw after former Arsenal forward Jeremie Aliadiere cancelled out Emmanuel Adebayor's seventh league goal of the season.

“Before the game lots of people would have suggested this was a game we wouldn't win if we went behind,” said Southgate.

“We had to be very resilient to win a point but our defence was magnificent. Robert Huth hadn't played for seven weeks and Chris Riggott for three.

Tony McMahon hadn't even played for us for two years and Emmanuel Pogatetz is playing with pain-killing injections in his shoulder,” former England centre-back Southgate added. “It was a mammoth effort.”