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‘You see your true players in November’

Arsene Wenger believes that his side will soon find their best form as you “only see your true players in November”.

The Gunners have had a difficult start to the season, but claimed a morale-boosting victory at Anderlecht on Wednesday night.

Wenger hopes the result will spark an upturn in form ahead of Saturday’s trip to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland.

"It will help to improve confidence and I’m sure that if we focus on the performance the rest will come naturally"

Arsene Wenger

“It will help to improve confidence and I’m sure that if we focus on the performance the rest will come naturally,” the manager said.

“It takes a long time to realise that football is about fight. I always said that you only see your true players in November.

“It’s about competition - forget what you’ve done before and focus on what is in front of you. That’s the only thing you can do.”

Wenger added that a lot of work is taking place on the training ground in a bid to shore up the defence.

“Last year we had 17 clean sheets and at the moment, we've only had one after eight games,” he said. “We are not on the same level defensively.

“It's [about] improving by getting everybody to put a bit more effort into the defensive work. That starts not only at the back, but up front and in midfield by increasing the level of defensive activity through the team.

“We have had to reshuffle the defence and [the players] getting used to playing together helps as well.”

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