Swansea victory will give us belief, says Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger breathed a huge sigh of relief after Saturday’s win over Swansea and declared: ‘Our confidence is back now’.

The Gunners boss had never waited so long for a first Premier League win of the season, but now envisages his side putting together a decent run after taking just one point from the first three games.

“In our job, momentum is vital,” said Wenger. “We just want to play to win. When you don’t win you have a deep problem, that’s for sure.

“The longer it lasts, the deeper the problem becomes. As soon as you win things are different.

“The confidence is back now. We had just not won yet in the league and that had played a big part in our heads.

“The Champions League had a big impact on our performances in the Premier League,” said the Frenchman who feels that the season will now settle down after an opening month that was interrupted by player departures, injuries, suspensions, international breaks and the two-legged Champions League play-off with Udinese.

“When you look back when we travelled to Udinese for the Champions League play-off nobody expected us to win the game and we did,” Wenger continued.

“We were disturbed by two things – players not with us and as well by the fact that the games against Udinese had an impact against Liverpool and United.”

Wenger was delighted with the displays of new signings Mikel Arteta – “he gave us some technical security” and Per Mertesacker – “he looks very intelligent in his positioning,” while Yossi Benayoun, who came off the bench for 25 minutes “brought us something when he came on because he was mobile, he was dynamic.”

The good news for Wenger is that with his side having avoided a red card for the first time in a league match this season on Saturday, nobody is now suspended for Saturday’s trip to Blackburn.

Gervinho, Alex Song and Carl Jenkinson will all be available again after their bans, and will give the Gunners boss some genuine selection posers for the trip to Ewood Park.