As reported by the Daily Mail, Roy Hodgson has defended the record of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger as his side travel to the Emirates on Saturday afternoon.
Arsene Wenger is struggling with the pressure that his side are under at the moment, having been humiliated in their most recent defeat against Bournemouth on Sunday. However, Hodgson insists that Wenger has done a marvellous job during his time at Arsenal. He also stated that ‘he could lose the next 50 games and it wouldn’t change my respect for him’.
The two oldest Premier League managers meet at the weekend with Wenger being heavily criticised for last week’s performance and the failure to secure new contracts for Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. Hodgson believes that the criticism is harsh and feels that the Frenchman stands alongside the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson as one of the greatest modern-day managers.
I think there are managers like Arsene who deserve the utmost respect because of what he’s done in the game of football, not least here in England.
He’s a record-breaker in almost every category and basically the only person in my era who could really hold his hand up and say ‘this guy and I are in the same category’ is Alex Ferguson.
He’s been criticised many times in the past but he could lose the next 50 games he ever plays and it certainly wouldn’t change one bit my respect for him as a manager, my respect for him as a person and in particular my respect for the job he’s done at Arsenal, which is something quite outstanding.
It’s easy for me to empathise or say good things about a guy like Arsene Wenger because I can’t really understand what there is to say that is not good about him.
Arsenal’s last victory came against Palace on December 28 when they won 3-2 at Selhurst Park. Since then, Arsenal have managed two points from three games, as well as suffering an FA Cup upset against Nottingham Forest.
Hodgson’s resurgent side have picked up seven points from a possible nine to move clear of the bottom three, but he insists that they are still in a relegation battle and cannot afford to be complacent.
The fact is we’re still in a relegation battle, we’re not alone now, we’re a little bit less isolated than we were some weeks and months ago and we’re happy, of course, about that.
We’re not looking up at all the teams above us but we’re still in a bigger group of teams now who must be aware that unless they can keep their form going, unless they can keep points coming in, unless they can keep performances at the very highest level, they’re going to be involved in a scrap to stay in the league right to the end.
