´Wounded´ Arsenal ready to pounce

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger wants his ‘wounded’ team to bite back when they host Manchester United on Sunday.

Wenger’s men were on target for a quadruple for a long period of the season, but one by one, Arsenal have fallen out of contention for each trophy.

It was Manchester United defender Patrice Evra who likened Arsenal to a wounded animal and Wenger agreed with that analogy.

“That’s what we want to show. We are certainly wounded and we have to build up the animal until Sunday,” Wenger said.

“We have been hit very hard. In fairness, I believe as well that we had an unfortunate run of fixtures because we played a run of Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday.”

“We missed that little bit extra that Bolton had in the decisive moments when they beat us recently and that is because of our fixtures.”

“That happened to us many times this season where the fixtures did not go our way.”

Arsenal are now nine points behind United which has taken some of the edge out of what could have been a potential title race decider.

Wenger added: “It is disappointing from that point of view. This game was targeted as being a decider for the championship but now it certainly will not be.”

“We still have to give absolutely everything and you never know if we beat United, it would come back to a six point gap.”

“You never know and it is important for us to show some fighting spirit, some fighting attitude and some pride. There is more at stake on Sunday than just the mathematics.”

“We will never give up as long as there is a mathematical chance, because if that is the case we have not the right to be at Arsenal Football Club.”

Arsenal will be missing defender Thomas Vermaelen (Achilles tendon) and midfielder Abou Diaby (groin).