Senderos: Gunners are ready to fire

14 April 2012

Philippe Senderos maintains Arsenal will be out to prove their doubters wrong next season and have an impact on the Barclays Premier League title race.

The Swiss defender captained a youthful Gunners side in last night's 2-1 win over Lazio to open the Amsterdam Tournament, in a match where summer signing Eduardo da Silva headed his first goal for the club after receiving his work permit earlier in the day.

Scroll down to read more:

Out to make doubters eat their words: Phillipe Senderos

Out to make doubters eat their words: Phillipe Senderos

Manager Arsene Wenger is expected to name a stronger team for the game against hosts Ajax on Saturday night as he steps up preparations for the start of the new campaign against Fulham on August 12.

Following the departure of key forward Thierry Henry and experienced midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, some critics argue Arsenal are no longer the force they once were, having finished fourth twice in a row.

However, Senderos insists the Gunners will be going all out to break the dominance of Manchester United and Chelsea.

"We want to be at the top, and are going to try our best this year," the Swiss defender said.

"We do not mind being outsiders like everyone else thinks.

"We just want to play our own game and prove everyone else wrong."

Senderos, 22, feels Arsenal have the right "character" as they continue preparations for the new season.

He said: "We had a lot of youngsters out there (against Lazio), and we did a tremendous job.

"We wanted to show we can push on for the first team, and that is what we did.

"We have a lot of character and showed out there we are a good team."

Wenger was, meanwhile, pleased with the workout and by the performance of his new Brazilian-born Croatian striker.

"Eduardo played well and celebrated his work permit very well today, and scored a goal," the Arsenal manager said.

"His integration in the team play was very good."

Regarding the successful work permit appeal, Wenger added: "I felt we had a lot of good vibes because he is a regular player for the Croatia team and anyway in three months we will have the 75% (of national team games). We were confident, but you never know."

Arsenal will discover their opponents in the third qualifying round of the Champions League when the draw is made in Nyon later today.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in