LONDON -- Arsene Wenger has promised that Arsenal won't have another slow start against Chelsea, and said his players have been "frustrated and angry" after the demoralising loss to Watford.
Wenger publicly questioned questioned his players mentality after the Watford game, when the Gunners were 2-0 down after just 13 minutes and let the visitors boss them around in the first half at the Emirates.
But the Frenchman ruled out a similar scenario at Stamford Bridge against the Premier League leaders.
"I think naturally we will be more on alert than we were against Watford," Wenger told a news conference on Friday. "I believe that first of all we want to recover from our disappointment and everybody knows inside the club that the team is healthy, united and has a desire to put things right straight away. On that front, everyone is focused on tomorrow's game."
Wenger admitted that the mood among his players wasn't good on Wednesday when they came in to the London Colney training ground. The Watford loss left his team nine points behind leaders Chelsea and was a missed opportunity to make up ground in the title race.
"You don't get to that level if you don't care about winning or losing. These guys are highly concerned and highly disappointed when they don't win," Wenger said. "At our level it is really [about] winning, the desire to win and when you don't we are of course frustrated and angry."
Wenger said after Tuesday's game that his players were "not mentally ready" to compete in the physical duels against Watford and admitted that much of his job this week has been about preparing them psychologically rather than physically.
"It is mainly [psychological] because you have to recover from the games, you have four days and it is mainly mental and tactical to prepare the team for tomorrow's game," he said. "The players know that [they have to step up]. We try to prepare them as well as we can and I think we made a big effort to prepare well for Tuesday night, but subconsciously it wasn't there.
"I must also say that we were punished by the fact that we were 2-0 down after 13 minutes. Everything went against us on the night. In the preparation on the night, I didn't detect any lack of concentration from the players."
Tuesday's result also means that a loss at Stamford Bridge could end Arsenal's title challenge for good. But Wenger didn't want to think about what would happen if his team falls to another defeat.
"In a press conference you always have to deal with the 'ifs' and the tragic consequences. I believe what's most important is that we turn up with a positive performance," he said.
"We have shown in the first game that we can beat Chelsea so let's turn up with the same quality and show a straight response. What is at stake is how well we respond, in a united way and in a determined way, to get there and play our game."
