Arsene Wenger avoided giving direct answers to questions regarding his future after Arsenal fell to another damaging defeat, this time at Brighton and Hove Albion.
Goals from Lewis Dunk and Glenn Murray at the Amex Stadium on Sunday condemned the Gunners to a fourth straight loss across all competitions.
After a 2-1 upset at home to Ostersunds in the Europa League - which could not prevent a 4-2 aggregate win - Wenger's men were beaten 3-0 twice in five days by Manchester City, once in the EFL Cup final and once in the Premier League.
And Brighton piled more misery on the Frenchman, who saw his side fail to mount a comeback despite Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's goal late in the first half.
After weeks of speculation towards the end of last season, Wenger signed a fresh two-year contract, but recent results have prompted some to suggest he should end his long association before that expiry date arrives.
"I must tell you, honestly, at the moment my future is not my main worry," Wenger told a media conference. "My worry is to get Arsenal to win football games, and then we see where we go from there.
"I will try to give my best as long as I am here, and do everything to get the team back to more confidence. We need to recover physically first. The program we have is at the moment a bit too demanding.
"There's no uncertainty [with the players about his future], I told you many times. What is the uncertainty is at the moment the quality of our performance. When you go through a difficult patch, uncertainty before the game is the quality of the performance we can give.
"Look, I don't want to talk about my future today. I'm long enough in the job to know what's going on and I'm long enough in the job as well to know that what's most important is to make sure you focus on what's important, that you give absolutely your best with full commitment."
Arsenal's latest defeat raised familiar questions about a lack of leaders within the side, but Wenger believes that is not necessarily at the heart of the issue.
"That's always what you get when you don't win," he said. "You can say maybe it's true or not, I think at the moment it looks more obvious that the team looks for confidence.
"In the last two games especially we gave a lot and we were 3-0 down at half-time [to City on Thursday]. That's difficult to take.
"Today, after 20 minutes, we were down 2-0 again. The disappointments, plus the fact that we made defensive mistakes, at the moment it looks like we lack leaders.
"I don't believe that - I just believe that we have to remain positive in a negative environment and show that we have character and that we have leadership."
Comments
SHARE