Wenger on the brink
Brighton..2 Arsenal....1
EVERTON are set to offer Arsene Wenger an immediate return to Premier League management if he is sacked by Arsenal.
Wenger’s reign hit its lowest point yesterday as his struggling side stumbled to defeat at Brighton.
It saw the Gunners lose four games on the trot for the first time in 16 years.
The ‘Wenger Out’ banners were on display again at the Amex Stadium while sections of travelling fans
chanted for the axe to fall. But the under-fire boss is wanted by Everton owner Farhad Moshiri, who feels Wenger is the ideal candidate to revive the Merseyside club’s fortunes.
Asked if he feared his long reign as Gunners boss was coming to an end, Wenger replied: “I don’t want to talk about my future today. At the moment, my future is not my main worry.
“My worry is to get Arsenal winning football games. Then we’ll see where we go from there. I’ll try and give my best as long as I am here.”
It remains to be seen whether Arsenal’s board are ready to show Wenger the door, either before the end of the season or in the summer when his contract will still have one more year to run.
But Iranian billionaire Moshiri is already preparing for life without Sam Allardyce, who looks on borrowed time at Everton after they slumped to their sixth successive away defeat at Burnley on Saturday.
And Wenger is top of Moshiri’s list for the rebuilding job at Goodison Park.
Prior to Moshiri’s Goodison investment he was involved in Arsenal, owning 15 per cent of the club alongside Uzbek-born Russian business magnate Alisher Usmanov. Despite Everton’s interest, Wenger, 68, maintains he is still the man to rejuvenate Arsenal. “I’ve done it before,” he said. “I believe a quality of manager is to try and shorten a crisis and I believe I can do that.” Those Arsenal fans calling for his head will take some convincing, while skipper Laurent Koscielny claimed Wenger must take his share of the blame. He said: “The player has responsibility on the pitch and the boss has responsibility too.” Wenger attempted to explain their slump on the pain of losing the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City 3-0, before going down to the champions elect by the same scoreline in the Premier League on Thursday. He added: “The negativity after losing the final, plus the fact we’re not in a fantastic position in the league, hits us hard. “On top of that, the game rearranged on Thursday night didn’t help us to compete today. We have to get the team back more confidence. But we need to recover physically first. The programme we have at the moment is too demanding.”