Stalemate does not shake Arsenal confidence

Arsene Wenger insists he is not relying on winning the Champions League in order to maintain Arsenal’s place among the European elite this season.

The north Londoners’ participation in club football’s premier knockout competition is under severe threat after a dismal season.

Wenger’s team were held to their third consecutive goalless league draw by struggling Sunderland on Saturday and now trail fourth-placed Aston Villa by six points.

If Arsenal prove unable to overturn that deficit, Wenger will be forced to win the Champions League – an achievement which has proved beyond him in his 12-year reign at the club – to qualify for next season’s tournament.

That places added pressure on the Frenchman ahead of Tuesday’s second round first leg encounter with AS Roma at the Emirates Stadium.

But Wenger, while admitting the race for the fourth qualification spot will be “tight”, dismissed the notion that Arsenal’s domestic travails have left them dependent on pulling off a shock in the Europe.

“I don’t think we will have to win the Champions League to qualify,” he said. “I believe we are six points behind Aston Villa and there is a long way to go.

“Villa have difficult fixtures and Chelsea have as well so we can come back – there is still time. Obviously we want to go as far as we can in the Champions League, that goes without saying. I am confident we will do it but it will be tight.”

Wenger will know, however, that Arsenal must rediscover their attacking style if they are to protect their elite status.

A manager who was once famed for his cavalier football has seen his class of 2009 score just five goals in their last six matches, four of which came in Monday’s FA Cup replay against Championship side Cardiff City.

Wenger pointed to Sunderland’s negative tactics as part of the reason for his team’s latest failure – a routine tactic – but did concede his young side suffered from nerves when they were unable to score early on against the Wearsiders.

Things are unlikely to be any easier on Tuesday.

Roma will not travel to London with attacking adventure high on their list of priorities and Wenger must hope his team cope better than they did against Ricky Sbragia’s doughty side.

“It’s difficult,” Wenger admitted. “Teams come here with 10 men who defend and a colossus up front but we have to learn to cope with that.”

One of the possible solutions to Arsenal’s barren run, Andrei Arshavin, made his debut and provided tantalising hints as to why Wenger, renowned for a parsimonious approach to transfers, spent 15 million pounds on the Russian playmaker.

Arshavin might have scored twice in the first-half and impressed with his movement and deft touches before tiring in the second-half and being substituted in the 63rd minute.

“He has shown in glimpses that he has talent and he will be a player,” Wenger added. “He is not ready physically but that will come. You feel something will happen in the final third when he has the ball.”

Sbragia offered no apologies for Sunderland’s approach and also defended his own managerial ethos after comments from his predecessor, Roy Keane, on the morning of the game.

Keane claimed he had been left cold by his chairman, Niall Quinn, asking him to ensure his players “come into work with a smile”.

If that was a coded criticism of Sbragia’s style, the Scot was in no mood to become embroiled in a war of words.

“Managers have different ideas,” he said. “My idea when I took over was to get the players to want to train, to work hard. We have conditions which they have to meet for us.

“It is about having discpline, enthusiasm, a smile about their face and wanting to come in and gel together.”