Speaking ahead of our first Premier League match of the season against West Ham on Sunday, Arsene Wenger believes we have the ‘ingredients‘ to win the title and revealed he’s a ‘big fan‘ of the new simulation rule.

Football is finally back, with our opening game on Sunday coming against East Londoners, West Ham. Last season we collected all six points against the Hammers, beating them 2-1 away and 3-0 at home, with goals from Santi Cazorla and Danny Welbeck, at Upton Park and Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini at the Emirates.

Although the boss is bound to be hopeful ahead of the tie, he realises a strong start and not underestimating the opposition is key, especially when it comes to the opening matches of the league.

“[West Ham] have added quality players, especially in Payet,” he said. “He’s a very creative and efficient player.”

He went on, “We’re ready for a fight and we’re motivated to start well. One of our targets is to start strong. We have the needed ingredients to succeed but we have a tricky start with two London derbies.”

He continued, “Our ambition is to win the Premier League. We have to set our targets high if we are to make progress from last season.”

The boss also mentioned his support of the new simulation rule, which sees players now receive bans for getting other players red-carded through diving.

“I’m a big, big fan of the new simulation rule. With all the camera angles it will be easier to punish players diving.”

However, he’s not in favour of the shortened break, describing it as a ‘massive mistake‘ and saying, “The difficulty is to find holidays for your players. The season starts so early that you could end up with your youth team playing.

“[Alexis] played a World Cup, played a whole season, the Copa America and cannot start the season.”

Wenger believes Alexis Sanchez is currently 10 days being ready.