Arsene Wenger says Arsenal are Primed for Late Trophy Surge

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Arsene Wenger believes his Arsenal side have enough energy to go flat out for the rest of the season.

The Arsenal manager has banished the idea that tiredness might derail a late surge for trophies and he is prepared to rotate his squad despite a rush of injuries.

Arsenal face three matches in eight days which could define their season.

They go to Wigan in the Premier League tomorrow on the back of a 17-match unbeaten run in the league and determined to catch Chelsea and 'steal' the Champions League qualifying third place spot.

They then face Villarreal at the Emirates on Wednesday in the second leg of the Champions League quarter final, which is at 1-1 following the first leg this week. That is swiftly followed by what could be an energy-sapping FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Wembley next Saturday.

But Wenger, who has lost William Gallas with knee ligament damage for the rest of the season and will be without first choice goalkeeper Manuel Almunia and fullback Gael Clichy for a fortnight at least, is determined tiredness will not be a factor.

He said: "It is something you don't want to talk about. My experience from France is that they always talk about 'fatigue, fatigue.' When you talk about it you are tired.

"The mysterious nature of football means that on any day the team can look flat as a unit. Even if you are rested sometimes you can look tired because we don't really master how our body turns up.

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"But these players are prepared to cope with that physical tiredness and you can rotate your squad."

It is why Wenger believes all the talk about Manchester United running into a wall of fatigue as they chase five trophies is just so much hot air.

Yet Wenger believes winning five trophies this season is not beyond United, even though they surrendered two away goals in their 2-2 draw with Porto.

Wenger insisted: "An impossible task? No, because United have enough quality to go to Porto and win. But Porto is a difficult place to go. We had them in the group. They have the culture of regularly being in the Champions League. But it is not impossible for Manchester United."

Wenger added: "Tiredness is more mental than physical. Sometimes when players come in to the team they look as tired, if not more tired, than the players who played the game before. It is very unpredictable.

"Offensively we have plenty of solutions. I have not decided yet who will be rested or not. But we always try to rotate a bit without destroying the balance of the team."

Andrei Arshavin could feature against Wigan, while Lukasz Fabianski, who deputised so commendably for Almunia when he came on against Villarreal, will be between the posts.

There will be an obvious temptation to save Emmanuel Adebayor, whose acrobatic equaliser gave Arsenal the precious away goal in Spain, for midweek European action. And ideally Wenger would keep Cesc Fabregas fresh.

( Mirror )