Ozil was a bargain at £40m – Wenger

The Gunners wasted the chance to go top of the Premier League as West Brom fought back from a goal down to beat them at The Hawthorns courtesy of a James Morrison effort and a Mikel Arteta own goal. And you should also not forget that we’ve got a super team, and get along really well.

“Mathematically you can not rule them out – even the bottom teams are in it”, Wenger said about Chelsea, as quoted by Arsenal’s official website.

Sanchez has been Arsenal’s standout player since joining from Barcelona for a bumper fee of £35 million in July 2014 (fee via BBC Sport), going on to score 16 goals in his debut season in the Premier League.

“I used him on the right because he gives us a balance because we have Ozil, who is an offensive player, we have Sanchez, we have Giroud or Walcott and Cazorla, so we need to balance a bit defensively”.

Regarding talk of the impending “Black Friday” shopping frenzy, Wenger said that he was partial to the odd bargain. For us, it was a bad result.

But John Ruddy is adamant they will not be relegated.

“The standards we have set ourselves have to remain in the 25 games we have left”.

But goalkeeper John Ruddy believes there have been enough positives in the club’s recent performances to strengthen confidence ahead of the visit of Arsenal.

Arsenal have won 10 and lost just two of their last 13 top flight away games, while their opponents have won just one of their last eight at home (D2 L5).

I understand that sitting in 4th with teams breathing down our necks and gathering momentum is uncomfortable. He had a little hamstring alarm but we will see how he recovers from that.

“There are a lot of points on offer at this stage of the season, and we want to pick up as many as possible”.

“Spontaneously, it might not be the moment to rest Alexis but I don’t know”.

“That’s football, but form is temporary”.

Sanchez has become famous for his relentless durability since arriving at the Emirates at the beginning of last season, and his fitness could be crucial to Arsenal over the Christmas period with several key players missing.