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LONDON. — Arsene Wenger has admitted the sale of Robin Van Persie to rivals Manchester United last year created unrest at the club and destablised the team. Arsenal sold their Dutch talisman for £24million as he entered the final year of his contract at the Emirates. Van Persie went on to help United regain the Barclays Premier League title from Manchester City while Arsenal had to settle for fourth place.
Speaking at the club’s AGM, Wenger said: ‘‘We lost Van Persie, created a lot of unrest and destabilised team. But from November to May team showed fantastic mental strength.’’

Arsenal replaced Van Persie with Frenchman Olivier Giroud and he has helped the Gunners to the summit of the Premier League this season.

And Wenger highlighted last season’s victory over Bayern Munich in the away leg of their Champions League tie, which they would lose on aggregate, proved pivotal in developing the belief of the squad.

‘‘From the end of March to today, we have lost just one match, that created a huge emotion,’’ Wenger said.
‘‘We have huge ambition to win the league this season. We were restricted financially and had to be strict, but we have come out of that. However, we have to defend our style of play and values, that comes from developing our own players, with youth policy and that should be core of our club.

The future of Arsenal will rely on quality of work we do inside, to scout and develop. We are respected all over world for our values, we are not artificial. ‘‘We will also look to buy proven quality — we did not need to scout to buy Ozil, it was just money.” — Mailonline.