Wenger hoping for kind draw after Arsenal fall

Arsene Wenger challenged his Arsenal squad to prove the team is good enough to rescue a season teetering on the brink of disaster after the Gunners' latest embarrassment.

Wenger's side crashed to a 2-1 defeat at Olympiakos on Tuesday that ended its hopes of pipping Schalke to first place in Champions League Group B and condemned it to a daunting draw in the last 16.

Arsenal would have taken pole position with a victory in Athens as group winner Schalke was held to a 1-1 draw by Montpellier.

But it wasted that lifeline as Olympiakos scored twice in eight minutes in the second half through Giannis Maniatis and then Kostas Mitroglou to overturn Tomas Rosicky's first-half opener.

It was another blow for Wenger, who is coming under increasing pressure from the club's fans following Arsenal's worst start to a Premier League season in his 16-year reign.

The Gunners, currently 10th in the league after Saturday's woeful 2-0 home defeat against Swansea, have now won just two of their past nine matches in all competitions and Wenger concedes they need to bounce back against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday to ease the sense of crisis engulfing the club.

"It is a good opportunity for us to keep focused and to show strength and unity. That is what you want to do in the next game," Wenger said.

With the January transfer window less than a month away, Wenger has been linked with a host of players, including Schalke forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha.

But the Frenchman, who sent out a weakened team against Olympiakos, refused to be drawn on whether he would ship out some of his underperforming stars and bring in new faces.

"I feel the young players, you discover them in these kind of competitions. They have the quality," he said.

"We have a strong squad, but in certain areas we are a bit short because we cannot rotate.

"We will see where we stand on January 1 and see what we do."

After seven years without a trophy and such a patchy run of form this season, Arsenal harbors only the slenderest hopes of winning the Champions League, but even that might have been extinguished by this loss.

Finishing second in the group means a tough test is ahead in the last 16 and Wenger admitted his team is up against it.

"We need a good Christmas present now (in the draw), but we will see," he said. "We can get a bad draw or less strong team, but you normally get strong teams through anyway now.

"The disadvantage we have is we play the second game away, but that is not statistically proven to be a such a disadvantage. Let's see, but for now it is important for us to focus on the Premier League, forget about the Champions League a little bit and get ourselves back in decent form in the championship."

(China Daily 12/06/2012 page24)