Arsene Wenger has admitted that his decision to delay contract talks with Arsenal last season and refuse to commit his future may have had a negative impact on the team.

After a season full of ups and downs, where Arsenal fans were divided on whether or not the 67-year-old should stay or go, Wenger waited until the end of May to announce his new two-year deal at the club. The decision to wait so long with conformation about his future brought a lot of negative press about his future. Media outlets predicted he would be sacked/resign come the end of the season, but nobody other than Wenger really knew what the outcome would be – and he believes this may have hurt his squad.

Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil have just one year left on their current Arsenal deals and are still yet to commit to the Gunners by signing new contracts, something Wenger said could be due to uncertainty surrounding his own future.

“It’s down to us to put a positive atmosphere around the team,” said Wenger after Arsenal’s Community Shield on Sunday.

“A lot was created by my own situation. Maybe I made a mistake.”

Arsenal star their Premier League season against Leicester City on Friday, and Wenger believes that the club must not repeat their slow starts from previous seasons, something that often costs them further down the line.

“Overall I believe that it’s down to us,” he added. “The trend has always to come from the team. We had some bad starts recently, the last four years, in the first game of the Premier League.

“But we had the intensity in the games in our preparation that is needed to be ready.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]