Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has demanded his team shake off the “slow starters” tag which plagued them last season when the team clash with the Irons tomorrow.
They won just two of their opening eight games and the Frenchman, heading into his 20th campaign as Arsenal boss, wants no repeats.”
They were held to a point on four occasions and lost a couple before hitting their stride around November so unsurprisingly the mood within the Irons camp is that this is the best time of the season to travel to the Emirates.
Slaven Bilic believes the Irons can acquit themselves well and will look to capitalise on any psychological reserve given that history.
‘I’m motivated to start well,’ said Wenger, who will be without Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky for Arsenal’s opener against West Ham.
“One of our targets is to start strongly, we’ve had good preparation and that should give us much-needed confidence.
“The Premier League is a fight in every single game so we have to prepare ourselves mentally for that and come out of the blocks straight away against West Ham.
‘Every game of pre-season went well, and I cannot remember a much better preparation.
‘We won the FA Cup last year, we finished third in the league so our target is very high – we want to win the Premier League.’
