Wenger: Arsenal beaten by ‘doped’ opponent in Champions League

Arsene Wenger has claimed that his team were unfairly beaten by a “doped” opponent following news that Dinamo Zagreb midfielder Arijan Ademi failed a drugs test after Arsenal’s costly 2-1 Champions League defeat in Croatia.

Arsenal’s European participation is hanging by a thread ahead of the visit of Bayern Munich on Tuesday following September’s defeat in Zagreb and then another at home by Olympiakos.

Wenger has admitted that his players lacked focus, but he has deep reservations about the circumstances of the Dinamo game.

Uefa is investigating Ademi’s ‘B’ sample before ruling on the case and is yet to make any comment, although the competition’s rules state that team sanctions would apply only if more than one player was found to have cheated.

The odds of that happening, however, are mitigated by Uefa randomly testing only two players in each squad after European games and then only when they have the medical officials on site.

“We were a bit unlucky having watched the [Zagreb and Olympiakos] games again,” Wenger said. Then, alluding to a wider issue, the Arsenal manager continued: “When you don’t play at your best and your opponent is doped, it is difficult.”

Wenger’s suggestion of a wider problem is likely to infuriate Dinamo Zagreb, who issued a statement following Ademi’s test.

The club said that their players had been regularly subjected to doping controls and that “never before has anything like this happened”.

They also said that Ademi had been tested six times in the past year and produced only negative results.

“During a disciplinary procedure GNK Dinamo and the player are not allowed to make any statement,” the club said.

Wenger has consistently criticised football’s lack of vigour at tackling doping and he suspects that the rarity of positive tests might be a sign that the systems are not working rather than that players are not cheating.

“We have organised World Cups before now with 740 players and zero doping cases and I don’t know if that is really a fact,” he said. “We have to wait as well because there is a counter check [on Ademi] to see what comes out. The rules are the rules and I cannot change that. I don’t think the result is really under any threat.”

Wenger also took the rare step of admitting to a lack of focus this season in the Champions League. The manager accepted that his players could be suspected of complacency.

“Our focus has been much stronger in the Premier League than Europe,” he said. “We know against Bayern that the focus must be the same as in the Premier League. We maybe could be a little suspected of not taking the first two games at the level of not taking the opponent seriously enough. This is not a threat against this team.”

Asked if it was easier to focus against a team of Bayern’s calibre, Wenger said: “We know we play a top side, maybe subconsciously [it makes a difference]. I think we prepared well against Zagreb and Olympiakos.”

Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern in 2013 and 2014 but Wenger believes that his team have improved and that the German champions cannot be considered superior to the side of 2012-13 who won the competition.

“We are better equipped,” he said. “We played great Bayern teams, at least as good as the one tomorrow, and beat them.

“There is no team without weaknesses. You have to respect Bayern. Historically, they have won the European Cup how many times? Five? And Arsenal zero. So, you cannot say that, historically, we are at the same level as Bayern. We have our backs to the wall but history doesn’t play the game. What will decide the game is the performance we produce.”

Asked if winning the Champions League remained an obsession, he said: “The obsession at the moment is to stay in it, not to win it.”

Pep Guardiola, the Bayern manager, was adamant that Arsenal’s desperate need to win would give them an advantage.

“I can imagine my team with zero points,” he said.

“The mentality of my team; we would be an animal, because it is our last chance.”

Guardiola also said that emulating Wenger by staying for two decades at one club was “impossible” and potentially also “boring” for the fans after he again failed to offer any clue over whether he would extend his Bayern contract which expires next summer.

Karl Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern chief executive, had earlier said that Guardiola’s future would be resolved by the end of this calendar year and that he was “optimistic” of persuading him to stay amid interest from top English clubs.