Arsène Wenger has acclaimed his squad for maintaining their great start to the season despite injuries and fatigue requiring that the team make some adaptions.

Aaron Ramsey, Per Mertesacker and Bacary Sagna all scored as the team recorded a fourth successive league win last weekend, with a 3-1 success against Stoke City – despite the opposition having 65 per cent of possession in the second half.

“The possession Stoke had was completely against our reputation and our way of play,” the manager told Arsenal Player.

“But that made me decide [that] some players needed a little breather because we were heavy-legged in the second half.

“Since the first international friendly some players have played every three days so it was vital for them to get just a little mental break, but overall we managed… to [get] the result. There again I think it’s because defensively we are more stable.”

For Wednesday’s Capital One Cup victory on penalties over West Brom, Wenger fielded an inexperienced team of youngsters and squad players to rest most of the first-team for tomorrow’s visit of Swansea and Tuesday’s home Champions League tie against Napoli. Mertesacker was one of the few household names on the team sheet.

Wednesday’s tie brought first starts of the season for the likes of Mikel Arteta and Nicklas Bendtner, but Saturday’s starting XI is expected to see a return to action for Mezut Ozil, Olivier Giroud and Kieron Gibbs in addition to last week’s scorers Ramsey and Sagna.

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