No long-term projects, this is the message that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has sent on Friday ahead of Sunday’s game against Sunderland.

With the Gunners currently 15th in the table, the Frenchman explained during his press conference that the players are only focused on Sunday’s game adding that there is good potential in the squad but also that the team needs time as it was heavily rebuilt during the summer transfer window.

The Arsenal boss continued by saying that back-to-back defeats in the English Premier League has affected the confidence of the players but the Gunners are convinced that they can bounce back and fight to recover after a terrible season start.

Asked about a possible finish outside the Top Four, Wenger admitted that the Gunners are not in a position to make long-term plans, saying that the players are fully aware of the gap between the top teams and the bottom zone of the table and that the objective is to reduce the gap as quickly as possible, starting this weekend against the Black Cats.

On Friday afternoon, the manager said:

What we are hopeful for and what we can achieve is to win our next game. It is seven games played, we have had some difficult away games.

I am convinced we have good potential, we have rebuilt the team and of course we were a bit disturbed at the start of the season for different reasons.

But we just want to focus on short term at the moment, we are not in a position to make long-term plans. You can never say that the confidence is at the top when you lose a big game.

Confidence is of course affected but we still believe in the way we play and want to behave. With confidence you fight to get it back.

We had a good series of results just before we lost to Tottenham and from that game I think there were many positives.

We have to respond quickly now because there is a big gap between us and the top teams and we want to reduce that as quickly as possible.

We speak always together, individually and collectively. The way we speak with our game is on the football pitch, that’s the best way to speak.