Wenger reflects on THAT Birmingham game

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
27 Mar	5:45 PM	P	Birmingham City (A)	1	1	Draw

Arsène Wenger admits that Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Birmingham City in 2008 was hard to take, but it did NOT end their title challenge that season.

Arsenal return to St. Andrew's this weekend for the first time since that game, once again looking for a crucial 3 points in the title race.

The result that day, along with Eduardo's horrific injury, seemed to derail Arsenal's title challenge for that season, but Wenger believes some of his squad were not focused or committed enough to the cause.

Speaking to Arsenal TV Online, he said: "We didn't deal well with the situation we faced on the day, but since then exactly the same happened to us at Stoke and we responded very well and in a very strong manner.

"I don't think on that particular day we lost the championship. Some players were not completely focused after that, because we had problems with players who were on the end of their contracts."

With Nicklas Bendtner a doubt with an ankle problem, Wenger could recall Eduardo to the starting lineup, and he believes his player needs to be mentally ready in what will be a difficult game for him emotionally.

He said: "I haven't spoken to him yet about that, but certainly for him emotionally it is a weight on his mind.

"But part of your career is to show that mental strength to deal with this kind of situation, and Eduardo has a lot of mental strength.

"Overall we just want him to come back and win our game. It was just one time in a thousand games he played that he had an accident. It was at Birmingham, but it could have been anywhere else."

Wenger also put to bed the suggestion that Andrei Arshavin doesn't have faith in his team-mates to deliver trophies for Arsenal.

The Russian was quoted as saying that Arsenal will need to sign more players before they can win the league, but Wenger believes these are old quotes being used out of context.

He said: "I didn't read that. I think it was an old interview that has come to surface again. That was a very old interview after the injury of Robin van Persie and of course we panicked a little bit."

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