Arsène Wenger: 'The Goal is to Make People Happy But You Don't Always Do It'

 Arsène Wenger as he looked shortly after his appointment in October 1996 and now, 809 Premier League games later. Photograph: PA and Getty Images
Arsène Wenger as he looked shortly after his appointment in October 1996 and now, 809 Premier League games later. Photograph: PA and Getty Images
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Arsène Wenger: 'The Goal is to Make People Happy But You Don't Always Do It'

 Arsène Wenger as he looked shortly after his appointment in October 1996 and now, 809 Premier League games later. Photograph: PA and Getty Images
Arsène Wenger as he looked shortly after his appointment in October 1996 and now, 809 Premier League games later. Photograph: PA and Getty Images

The idealist in Arsène Wenger is never far from the surface. The Arsenal manager has reverted to a back four in recent matches – his default setting for so many years – and it has meant bad news for Sead Kolasinac, the summer signing from Schalke whom Wenger sees as a left wing-back and not a left-back.

Since the switch from a starting back three to a four at West Ham United on 13 December, Wenger has relegated Kolasinac to the bench for Premier League matches and brought in Ainsley Maitland-Niles on the left of the defence. “I think Kolasinac will play again and I gave him a breather, as well,” Wenger said. “He is highly suited for a wing-back role, for a more offensive role. He is working hard and I think he will play in a back four, as well.”

Wenger went to a back three after the disastrous 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on 10 April and it helped his team to finish the season strongly. But this time out – mainly on their travels – they have looked passive and predictable. In nine away league fixtures they have scored nine goals, and five of them came at Everton. “We didn’t score enough goals away from home, so that’s why [there was the switch in system],” Wenger said. “I felt that sometimes our game was a bit too lateral.”

It was put to Wenger that the back four was the formation of his heart. “In my heart I prefer to play with one defender,” he replied, with a smile.

Et voilà. Even Wenger cannot play with one defender, although given how high he positions his full-backs it could be argued that he is not far from doing so. But this was the Frenchman at his purest – the old romantic who prizes freedom of expression. Where is the joy in defending?

Wenger has reached his latest landmark. On Thursday night he returns to Selhurst Park to face Palace and it will be the 810th Premier League game of his career, equalling the record of Sir Alex Ferguson, his former adversary at Manchester United.

The first thing to say is that top-level English football records do pre-date the inception of the Premier League. But Wenger’s longevity is remarkable and he puts it down to a number of factors, including dedication, sacrifice, luck, good health and having found a club that chimes with his values. The 68-year-old has remained true to himself and as he reflected a little whimsically on a journey that began with the 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers in October 1996, he chose to highlight a guiding principle.

“The most important thing is to believe in human beings,” Wenger said. “When you are such a long time in the job, you’re not naive. You know all the strengths and weaknesses and how, sometimes, people can be selfish or mean. But you still have to believe that there is a light in every human being that you can get out.

“If you are paranoid, don’t chose this job. You have every reason to become more paranoid. But you must have that strength of belief in human beings that always takes over at difficult moments.

“People don’t want to know whether other clubs have more resources. They just want you to win. But your job is to take the best out of the potential of your team. The ultimate goal is to make people happy. Unfortunately you don’t always manage that but you try to do it.”

Wenger remembers his Arsenal debut at Ewood Park, where Ian Wright scored both of the goals, and it is fair to say he could not have imagined staying in situ for so long. “I would have said: ‘You’re absolutely mad, absolutely no chance,’” Wenger said. “Because every game is such a gamble. It’s Russian roulette every game so you think at some stage the trigger will hit you.

“When we drove to Blackburn on the coach, I’d banned all the chocolate and I remember the players chanted: ‘We want our Mars bars.’” Wenger was asked what they chanted these days. “Now, they have their music,” he replied, pretending to put on a pair of headphones.

To the Frenchman the essence of the game has not changed; it is society and behaviour that have done. “We have gone to more individualism,” Wenger said. “We live in a society that is more demanding and opinionated. The problem in Europe is that the respect for basic things is less strong than it was 20 years ago – things like respect for each other. There is more suspicion. In every job people are questioned more. It means society is less stable.

“It’s still about values and the carrier of the values [at a football club] is the manager. If you have no stability, these values are questioned. Technical stability is important. Maybe the clubs today need to be stronger inside to resist that.”

Wenger preached his gospel of calm analysis. As much as anything, it is what has sustained him. “If we watch again the Palace game from last April, you will see it was not as bad as everybody said,” he argued. “Don’t get carried away by all the negativity. Try to analyse the game in the most objective way. Even when you win, it’s the same.”

The Guardian Sport



Osaka Earns First Grass Win of the Season with Victory over Qualifier Danilovic

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
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Osaka Earns First Grass Win of the Season with Victory over Qualifier Danilovic

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)
Japan's Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Russia's Ludmilla Samsonova during the Berlin WTA tennis tournament in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)

Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka fired 16 aces past Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic to earn a 7-6(6) 7-6(4) victory at the Bad Homburg Open on Monday for her first win on grass this season less than a week before the start of Wimbledon.

The 27-year-old Japanese player, who had lost in the first round at her last two tournaments -- the French Open and the Berlin Open -- had won her first title in May in almost two years following a maternity break.

Osaka, who had reached the third round of the Australian Open in January before retiring injured, has not had back-to-back wins on any surface since the Italian Open in May. She is currently ranked 56th in the world.

"It's my first grasscourt win of the year," Reuters quoted Osaka as saying. "I am excited about that. I am super excited to play here and be back for my next round."

Asked whether she was on track to improve her form on the surface, she said: "I hope so. I think I have potential but everyone is really good so I cannot take it for granted."

The pair held serve to take the first set into a tiebreak where Osaka snatched it on her second set point.

Osaka was 40-0 up on her opponent's serve at 2-2 in the second set but she could not bag the first break of either player in the match, with Danilovic holding serve with her eighth ace of the match.

Osaka, however, got the mini-break she needed in the tiebreak when she challenged a Danilovic first serve that was then ruled out, with the qualifier then double-faulting.

She held on to that slim advantage to earn a spot in the round of 16 where she will face fifth-seed Emma Navarro.

Russian eighth-seed Ekaterina Alexandrova also eased into the next round with a 6-1 6-2 win over Swiss Belinda Bencic.

Croatia's Donna Vekic made equally light work of sixth seed southpaw Diana Shnaider for a 6-3 6-3 victory.

Clara Tauson of Denmark needed to work harder and battle from a set down before snatching a 6-7(6) 6-3 6-3 against Poland's Magdalena Frech.