Sunday 28 February 2016 08:18, UK
Arsene Wenger reckons Arsenal are in their strongest position for years to make a successful title challenge.
The Gunners were last crowned champions in 2004 and are challenging for a fourth league title under Wenger, with a trip to Manchester United on Sunday their next big test.
Arsenal have come close to winning the title since their last success, and in 2008 they were five points clear at the top of the table at one point.
On that occasion, the run-in was derailed with a damaging defeat at Birmingham which saw Eduardo suffer a serious leg break and captain William Gallas endure a meltdown in the latter stages.
The next two seasons would also see Wenger's men labelled as nearly-men, but the Frenchman has now told of how he believes imminent moves away from the club were distracting some of his star players from helping Arsenal win the league.
Cesc Fabregas left for Barcelona while Emmanuel Adebayor and Samir Nasri were poached by Manchester City as Arsenal struggled to maintain their position as league challengers as they continued to pay off the debt of their new stadium.
What is different is that at that time we were losing momentum. This time it's the opposite.
But, with the ground now paid off and a real chance of winning the club's first title in 12 years, Wenger reckons it is all-change this time around.
"What is different is that at that time we were losing momentum. This time it's the opposite," Wenger said.
"We are chasing and gaining momentum. We had two difficult games recently but overall the psychological situation is quite different.
"Also we were very young at that time, with the famous incident with Gallas at Birmingham. And the mood of some players was more to get the next contract somewhere else than to win the championship because at the time we had to sell our players."
Wenger admits such cases were harmful on the dressing room camaraderie whereas now all he sees is a squad hungry for success.
"It's difficult to keep the focus," he said of the impact of players looking to move on.
"Now we do not have that problem at all. All the players are focused and want to win and have great solidarity. It's down to showing how good we are. The psychological situation is completely different today than it was in 2010.
"This is a team that's very hungry. They want to win and I think they've shown that in the FA Cup in the last two years. This team wants to do well and is very conscientious and I think my job is more to relax them a little bit."
