Arsene Wenger is not surprised that the Premier League’s established sides, including Chelsea and his own side Arsenal, have found this season so tough.
Jose Mourinho’s champions have won just once in their opening four games, slipping to a surprise defeat at home to Crystal Palace in one of 17 games so far this season where the visitors have claimed victory.
With Palace having invested a club-record fee in PSG midfielder Yohan Cabaye Wenger sees the gap between the top flight’s established elite and its newly-minted middle class being played out in a series of surprise results for the biggest sides.
“It’s not a surprise that the Premier League is stronger, as a unit,” Wenger told beIN Sports. “Why? Because the English clubs are richer and the teams who play in the second half of the league can buy the best players from Spain and from Italy. So it is not a surprise that in England it becomes more difficult to win the games.
“After that, the phenomenon that is absolutely new is that there are few home victories. That shows that teams that go away from home have no fear anymore. They play with full power and because they have individual quality they can provoke surprising results.”
How Arsenal's players fared on international duty
Arsenal were one of the first to suffer at the hands of a confident visitor they would usually have expected to turn over, slipping to a 2-0 defeat against West Ham on the opening day.
Although the result immediately left them playing catch up with pace-setting Manchester City Wenger has praised the way in which his players got over the disappointing opening to a campaign in which so much is expected.
He added: “We have not found our home form yet. If you have a bad spell during the season everybody finds that it can happen. But if you start the season on the wrong foot you’re straight away under pressure.
“I think we responded very well to the pressure we faced straight away after the West Ham game and overall we responded very well, but we missed out first game.”
