ARSENE WENGER hits 68 today – but insists he could not care a jot about celebrating.
Not that the Arsenal manager is worried by the ticking clock – even if he is the second oldest boss in the top flight behind Crystal Palace’s Roy Hodgson, 70.
Far from it, in fact. No, Wenger, who recently stated he is feeling as fit as ever and remains totally in love with the game, is only concerned about one number this weekend – three points at Everton.
Ahead of today’s trip to Goodison Park, the Frenchman, now in his 21st year in charge of the North Londoners, dismissed all the talk of his birthday as a total irrelevance.
Wenger said: “I am not interested in birthdays.
“I am only interested in football. It’s always football for me!”
Wenger’s men bounced back from last weekend’s horror Premier League defeat at Watford with a fine 1-0 victory at Red Star Belgrade in the Europa League.
That made it seven wins, one draw and only one loss in nine games in all competitions since they crashed 4-0 at Liverpool back in September.
And the Gunners supremo reckons that decent sequence proves talk of another crisis in the wake of the 2-1 reverse at Vicarage Road is way wide of the mark.
“What do you think? I imagine the team will give a reaction at Everton – of course,” added Wenger, who is likely to recall Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey to face Ronald Koeman’s strugglers.
“What is important is we have come from Watford after a big run – a long run – and responded. That’s important because it can quickly become a burden.”
Wenger appreciates why supporters can get so angry over a bad result and display – but not if it then leads to an overwhelming mood of pessimism about the whole campaign.
He said: “What is for sure today is fans have a preconceived idea of how the season will be very quickly – that it will not be good.
“In football, even the best team in the world will have good or bad games. That’s why you need to convince your fans that having a positive season doesn’t depend on one or two games.
“You can only have a positive season if we are all behind the team until the end of the season. Then you can accept the verdict.
“I can completely understand that people are unhappy when you don’t win. But as long as the game goes on, you want people behind the team.”
Olivier Giroud, Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott each staked strong claims in Serbia to be included in the Gunners’ Premier League line-up this weekend.
Wenger is unlikely to start any of them this afternoon – with barely 48 hours’ rest between matches – but is delighted with their form.
He said: “It’s important to see these players are getting stronger and stronger in every game.”