Arsène Wenger is well aware of the strain on his squad over the
next couple of months but he is NOT in favour of a winter
break.
The Arsenal manager left Cesc Fabregas and Alex Hleb back in London
when the Club left for tonights Champions League tie at Slavia
Prague. Wenger knows his side only need a point to qualify from
Group H and yet, after the international break, they face a spell
of 13 games in six weeks.
It is a hectic timetable in which Arsenal will be fighting for
trophies on four fronts. But despite that, Wenger would not want to
follow the Continental model of a winter recess.
At the moment there is still a reasonable break in the summer,
said the Frenchman. So I feel that is better than getting to a
solution where you have no break in the winter and no break in the
summer.
Lets not be stupid. We cannot go down to 18 teams in the Premier
League. You do not have less games than before, you always have
more.
I certainly think we [at Arsenal] have a big enough squad to give
the players a rest when it is needed. For example, I like to keep
stability in the team but when it is needed to take one or two
players out.
[Anyway] if you want to ask the players to make a winter break it
needs to be two months, because you need to give them three weeks
off.
If it is one week off I dont think anything changes apart from
the mental refreshment. Physically I dont think there would be a
big amount of efficiency.