Wenger having sleepless nights ahead of new season

Lisbon: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted to having sleepless nights as his team’s season appears to be nearing its end even before kicking off.

Ahead of Arsenal’s match against Benfica, Wenger said he has been trying to keep up the momentum by signing new players, while retaining key stars. Arsenal played without five of its key players on Friday, including Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Samir Nasri and Laurent Koscielny. According to Wenger, all of them did not play owing to injury except Fabregas.He clarified that Fabregas is not strike in the wake of mounting suspicions about the seriousness of injury. "He is not injured. He is coming back from injury and is not ready to play”, a daily quoted Wenger, as saying. Midfielder Gervinho and defender Carl Jenkinson are so far only new faces in the team. Wenger said his team could not afford any more injuries and hoped to sign atleast one new face next week. ".. We have had some sleepless nights and we were working non-stop through the summer. The injuries are making things difficult. We start the season next week and then we have a Champions League qualifier. We need to qualify and hopefully we won`t have any more injuries from the international matches. We could be hit hard if we lose any more”, a daily quoted Wenger, as saying. Wenger expressed confidence in new faces in the team, ahead of Southampton`s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain arrival next week. "I hope we will have some good news on signing players. Maybe something next week", he said. ANI