Wenger - Arsenal players must not be ashamed of themselves

Arsenal, in the space of three weeks, found themselves eliminated from three competitions and are left with only the Premiership title to fight for. Despite the evident blip in confidence, their manager Arsene Wenger has insisted his players must not be ashamed'' of their season so far.

Arsenal make the trip to West Brom on Sunday, after losing out in the FA Cup against Manchester United in the quarter-final before which they were eliminated from the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona and the Carling Cup final against Birmingham at Wembley.

However, they stand a real chance to win the Premiership with 10 games left and have a game in hand on leaders Manchester United, since being three points behind. With a possible title-decider on May 1 against Manchester United, the Gunners still stand a chance to end their six-year trophy drought.

However, following their elimination from three competitions, much has been said Arsenal's choking when it matters most. However, Wenger has insisted that all is not lost yet.

If you look at what we did this season, it deserves a lot of credit. You have to put it right until the end of the season and continue to do as we did at the start of the season. Would anybody have predicted that we are where we are, in front of Chelsea and Manchester City and fighting for the championship? Nobody. We went out against Barcelona - it's just one goal, playing with 10 men and we had a chance in the last minute to qualify.

I don't think we have to be ashamed of what we did - we should be proud of what we did until now. So let people talk and let us do the job. At the moment, the team needs mental toughness and to support each other, that's what you need. We are not in a disastrous situation and not to feel sorry for ourselves - we are in a position where we have to be attracted by what we can achieve.

We are not fighting not to go down, we are fighting to win the championship, so we do not want to feel sorry for ourselves; just go for it. We went out of cup competitions, but what is stake is a championship and that means that the team has been the most consistent. When you want to be consistent you have to deal with disappointments.''

An injury crisis, especially in the goal-keeping department, hasn't helped them and it required veteran keeper Jens Lehmann to come out of retirement and answer Wenger's SOS call. Wenger went on about the importance of his return.

Jens is not a talker, it is more his attitude. His focus, determination and if he needs to say something to somebody, he does. The team is more a unit. They are all young players. There is always a first time that you have to get over in life. The best way to get over that is to focus on the football that we want to play, continue to believe in the way that we want to play and focus on supporting each other and stay above the line and don't get pulled down.

These players have grown up together. They have been educated together, they have gone through different periods together. I am convinced, at the end of the day, that Arsenal has a special meaning for them and that will come out.''