Home Premier League Arsenal Wenger defends lack of silverware

Wenger defends lack of silverware

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The Gunners’ last triumph came in the 2005 FA Cup, but they are in the semi-finals of the event this season, while they are also in contention for league honours as they trail leaders Chelsea by four points ahead of their upcoming showdown at Stamford Bridge.

“When you make a decision [to build the Emirates Stadium] you don’t say, ‘OK, we invest in the stadium but we don’t want trophies’,” Wenger, who today will oversee his 1000th game for the north Londoners, told Arsenal’s official website.

“In 2006 we were in the Champions League final. Nobody speaks about it now but it’s still an achievement.

“It’s not a trophy but we did it without conceding a goal in the whole campaign and only lost in the last 13 minutes of the Champions League. Can you say you failed that season? I don’t think so. On top of that we managed to stay in the top four that season.

“We [also] beat Real Madrid with Zidane and Beckham and all these people but nobody speaks about it. It’s like we have done nothing at all. Why? Because at the end of the season you don’t parade the trophy.”

The Frenchman added: “You have to take a little bit of distance with [the criticism for a lack of trophies] and assess what is difficult and what is a good season. I know that trophies are important. But it’s not like if you haven’t won a trophy nothing happened in the whole season and it was disastrous.

“You still played good games and bad games and in the season when you won trophies you still played bad games.”

Written by Steve Milne

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