By BEN HUNT
And he hopes for more festive cheer by persuading Theo Walcott to stay.
Spanish maestro Santi Cazorla hit a hat-trick to ease the pressure on the Arsenal boss. Walcott — playing in his favoured central striker role — also scored. And Wenger wants the England man to sign a new contract soon.
He said: “If it was my decision, it would be done quickly. Our desire and will is clear and he knows that. Hopefully we can get to a happy end with it.”
Walcott is out of contract in the summer and could leave for nothing.
He has been frustrated by Wenger’s previous refusal to play him down the middle and rejected an £80,000-a-week offer.
Wenger added: “He has become a top-level player at Arsenal and I hope when he considers his future, he will think this is the best place for him and sign for us.
“We have a good core of young English players.
“I hope we will be capable of building a team around all these young English players who can achieve something together. We have gone through a period of restricted potential financially. Hopefully now we can be a bit more convincing.”
Wenger admitted his team have been in a “crisis” following their poor league form and humiliating defeat by League Two side Bradford in the Capital One Cup last week.
Cazorla’s treble, plus a Lukas Podolski strike, had Arsenal cruising at 4-0.
But Adam Le Fondre and Jimmy Kebe made it 4-2 before Walcott netted.
Wenger added: “We were under a lot of tension before the game. We thought subconsciously it was done at 4-0.
“But at 4-2, I saw your headlines coming!”
