Champions League

Carl Jenkinson: 'We have character in dressing room to respond'

By Liam Power, Reporter | 20 August 2013

Arsenal full-back Carl Jenkinson declares that his squad have enough strong characters in the dressing room to respond after a poor start to the season.

Arsenal full-back Carl Jenkinson has declared that his side will stick together and fight to put things right quickly after a disappointing start to the campaign.

The Gunners were beaten 3-1 at home by Aston Villa in their Premier League opener last weekend, with Jenkinson forced to come on at left-back in place of Kieran Gibbs early on at the Emirates.

Jenkinson believes that despite struggling with a whole host of injury problems Arsene Wenger's men have enough spirit and character in the squad to find a positive response, starting against Fenerbahce in Istanbul tomorrow night.

He told the club's official website: "We want to be playing in the Champions League. It's the pinnacle of football and it's where this club belongs so we've got to get our heads straight and recover from this result.

"I'm confident we'll do that because we've got a lot of characters in the dressing room. It's a marathon not a sprint. We've played one game and of course everyone is really disappointed. The only thing I can say is that we're as disappointed as the fans. If you were in the dressing room after, you would have been able to tell that. Believe me, we're going to fight to put things right.

"The season is a very long one and we've started poorly before and come back to have very strong seasons. We've lost one game. We shouldn't look into things too much. There's no denying we're all really disappointed but as I've said, we'll be battling to put things right and that starts in midweek."

Bacary Sagna, Gibbs and Tomas Rosicky will all travel to Turkey this morning despite carrying knocks, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been added to the long-term injury list alongside Mikel Arteta.