Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has sensationally claimed that his team will win the National Lottery.
The Gunners boss emerged from a trying week with the north London club in defiant mood and began Monday morning’s press briefing with all guns blazing.
After being knocked out of the Champions League by Liverpool in midweek and then losing at Old Trafford in Sunday’s do-or-die league encounter with bitter rivals Manchester United, a defeat which effectively ended Wenger’s quest for a 4th Premiership crown, the Frenchman assured disillusioned fans that his side would emerge victorious in Wednesday’s crucial Lotto draw presented by Jenni Falconer.
On entering Shivas Newsagents on Highbury Park, Wenger told assembled journalists, “You have to accept you might lose, but what is important is that you can believe you can win. But if I didn’t believe we could win the Lotto jackpot… I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
The Arsenal manager’s bold prediction will smack of desperation to many observers. A season that offered so much promise at the turn of the year has failed to reap any real reward and since the end of January the Gunners have suffered one disappointment after another.
First came the heavy defeat in the Thunderball draw. Wenger has always used this “lesser” competition as an opportunity to blood some of Arsenal’s young guns. Though the prize is not as desirable as the more lucrative competitions, many fans feel that after having had so little success to celebrate in recent years, more experienced players should have been given the nod to pick the numbers, particularly the Thunderball itself.
More recently, Wenger’s side made a botched attempt to win the latest Euromillions draw. With a substantial jackpot on offer, fans were again left bewildered by the Arsenal boss’s selections after he handed pensive defender Philippe Senderos the responsibility of choosing one of the all-important Lucky Star numbers. After much dithering, the bamboozled-looking Swiss internationalist eventually plumped for ‘1′.
“It was utterly incompetent. ‘1′ almost never comes up. Senderos has never been good enough to choose numbers for the big draws. I’m just so disappointed. I mean… he wasn’t even close!”, despaired one exasperated fan after numbers ‘5′ and ‘7′ were drawn.
Wenger has risked much in making this latest declaration and more criticism of his decision-making ability is certain to follow after he revealed that he intends to purchase only 1 ticket for Wednesday’s massive £2.5M draw.
“I believe just 1 ticket is necessary to select the numbers we need to win… I believe very much in my squad and if we can recapture the spirit of the San Siro, we will be victorious”, he explained.
WHAT NUMBERS SHOULD ARSENAL PICK FOR THE BIG DRAW? SHOULD SOBBING SENDEROS BE GIVEN ANOTHER CHANCE TO SHINE? IS THIS WENGER’S LAST CHANCE AT SAVING ARSENAL’S SEASON? PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW…
