Wenger: Cohesion is underrated in football

Arsene Wenger believes cohesion and stability are an underrated part of modern football.

Arsenal have won three on the bounce in the league, including a 2-1 victory over fellow title contenders Manchester City last time out.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech was Wenger’s only major signing in the off-season, and the Arsenal manager says stability has been a key to their great form so far in 2015-16.

“Today’s society always wants something new,” he said. “We have news every half an hour, or every minute. You need to announce something new.

“But let’s not forget that football is as well about cohesion, about stability and that goes a little bit against the demand of what people want. But I still think success is linked with talent and cohesion.

“Cohesion is an underrated factor now in our society because there is always a demand for something new. It’s more difficult because people are better informed today. They know more straight away.

“When a team loses a game, everybody has an opinion and the environment is more destabilising than it was ever before, so maybe inside the clubs this kind of cohesion becomes more important, and resistance to that destabilising factor becomes more important.

“If you look at our record we are more consistent with our results. I looked yesterday and someone made the table in 2015 and we are quite ahead of everyone else in 2015. The consistency has been quite good.”

Arsenal’s next test is away against Southampton on Boxing Day.