Arsène Wenger says early season struggles gives Arsenal extra urgency

Arsène Wenger believes Arsenal are not yet out of the "devil's hands" as the team's resurgent form is threatened by a crisis at full-back. After a terrible start to the season Arsenal are now seventh, having won four of their past five games, but Wenger warned that confidence has not yet been full restored. The manager takes his side to Norwich City for the early kick-off on Saturday and he said: "Usually once the devil has you in his hands he doesn't let you go again. What I mean is that you are concerned that the confidence level drops and that it takes time to come out of it. In football you can never rule anything out. Once you are 17th in the league you cannot say for a club like Arsenal that it is a comfortable position. It is still a warning in our head. But we have showed remarkable mental strength and consistency since. Maybe to have gone there helps us keep the urgency." With Bacary Sagna, the first-choice right-back, already a long-term absence due to an ankle injury Wenger has lost his stand-in, Carl Jenkinson, to a stress fracture. The Frenchman also learned this week that he will lose Kieran Gibbs, his preferred left-back, until after Christmas after it was discovered that a stomach injury had masked the more serious issue of a hernia. Wenger said: "He has had surgery [on Thursday] – I had no news [that] night but hopefully that has gone well. I count six weeks [for Gibbs to be out]. Jenkinson has a stress fracture in his back and, at the moment, is out for a minimum of three to four weeks." Wenger admitted his resources are stretched. "Frankly we do not have enough cover. We have two full-backs out in the same position, and anyway you cannot have four or three, because two would never play. We are a bit short, especially on the right side." He said the central defenders Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny could provide cover there. Thierry Henry, Arsenal's record goalscorer, is back training with the club as the New York Red Bulls' Major League Soccer season is now finished. But Wenger played down any proposition of a loan move. "We have a big squad and anyway, that problem cannot examined before the end of December. We have 26 outfield players so we have a massive squad. In football you rule very few things out. Because it depends if you have seven injuries until January. At the moment we have a big enough squad to cope. We've got [Theo] Walcott, Gervinho, [Robin] Van Persie, Park [Chu-young], [Marouane] Chamakh who are all strikers."