Wenger denies Ian Wright’s fake Arsenal news

Arsene Wenger: Changed man since stadium move?

Arsene Wenger has given his thoughts on Ian Wright’s claims that the Arsenal manager is “coming to the end”.

Arsenal won their first game in three on Saturday, edging to a 2-0 victory over Hull at the Emirates Stadium.

The unconvincing victory came after successive defeats to Watford and Chelsea, which had increased the scrutiny on Wenger’s position as manager.

Former striker Wright claimed on Friday evening that he had spoken to the Frenchman earlier in the week, and had the impression that he would quit at the end of the season.

But Wenger, speaking after the Hull win, denied reports that he is ready to leave the club.

Explaining why Wright thought he had “lost his wind”, the manager replied: “I could be tired because I get up early in the morning, and I finish late at night.

“So sometimes I’m tired, yes, but I didn’t give any indication about my future.

“I appreciate very much that you want me to rest absolutely, but I’m not ready for that.”

Pressed on whether he and Wright had a one-on-one conversation when they met at a dinner for Arsenal’s Diamond Club members on Thursday, Wenger added: “No, it was a question and answers with members of the Diamond Club, so there were many people there.

“We had a little dinner before, but it was not the two of us, it was four or five.”

Wenger admitted his side rode their luck but said they needed the three points to regain their confidence ahead of their crunch Champions League tie at Bayern Munich next week.

Hull defender Andy Robertson told Sky Sports after the match that Clatternburg had apologised to the Tigers at half-time for allowing Sanchez’s opening goal to stand, but Wenger said he did not have a clear view of the incident.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “I am responsible for many things but not for the referee’s decisions so I feel sorry for Hull but I feel that we had to cope recently with some decisions and you did not ask me these questions.

“So I am sorry. I want the right decisions to be made. There are some other goals like at Manchester City, that nobody said was offside.

“Of course (we rode our luck). When you lose two games on the trot at Arsenal you face a good storm. There is only one answer: to win the next game or you face even more. I’m at Arsenal for 20 years, I know that. When you will look one day if I lost three Premier League games on the trot, you will be surprised.”

The win saw Arsenal close the gap on leaders Chelsea to nine points with the Blues travelling to Burnley on Sunday. Wenger insisted his team will fight until the end and said he is not focused on what their rivals are doing.

“Look, I said yesterday that we have to fight no matter what the gap is,” he said. “At first, to find some confidence because when you lose two games that’s what you fight for so for us it was just important to win today.”

Tigers boss Marco Silva was unhappy with the referee, both for Sanchez’s goal and Gibbs’ yellow card.

“Of course I am not happy and I think we didn’t deserve this result,” the Portuguese said.

“Some of the decisions, the important decisions are not good for us today. About the game, Arsenal started well, started better than our team. But the story is that they scored with an illegal goal.”