Clichy fired up by trophy thoughts

Gael Clichy has vowed Arsenal will challenge for honours again this season and remain the game's top "entertainers". The Gunners ensured their place in yesterday afternoon's draw for the group stages of the Champions League – and an estimated windfall of £25m – with a comprehensive rout of Steve McClaren's average FC Twente side on Wednesday night.

The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, had called for a response following the disappointment of a lacklustre display in the Premier League defeat at Fulham last Saturday and he certainly got one. Driven on by the return of key midfielder Cesc Fabregas, the Gunners, already two goals up from the first leg in the Netherlands, romped to a 6-0 aggregate win as their trademark brand of quick, passing football was too hot for McClaren's Uefa Cup-bound outfit to handle.

While sterner tests lie ahead as the Gunners look to mount a challenge on both the domestic and European front, full-back Clichy insists this side have got what it takes to end a three-year trophy drought. "The Fulham game was not good enough. For a club like Arsenal, we have to be at the top and to be at the top you have to play with the right spirit," he said.

"That is what we tried to do against Twente and we showed with the players we have got, if everyone is playing the same way, we can have a great result. Of course we have to win things, and that is the main objective this year.

"But if we can do it the way we play, it is even better because football is to entertain people and to take pleasure and that is what we are doing at Arsenal. We have to win things, I hope this year will be a good one and I am sure we can do it."

However, Clichy, 23, knows Arsenal must be ready for another stern test of their Premier League title credentials when Newcastle come to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday for the early evening kick-off.

"We have to be focused, have a good rest before the game and try to do our best," he said. "When you play in English football, you know that any team you play is going to be a tough game. Fulham showed us last weekend that you have to be up for every game. We know that that was a big blow and we learn from this and hopefully it won't happen again."

Wenger, meanwhile, will be without new signing Mikaël Silvestre until after the international break at the start of September because of a thigh strain. While continuing his quest to bring in another midfielder – which could yet be Feyenoord's £12m-rated Jonathan De Guzman – before Monday's transfer deadline, the Arsenal manager admits he may well have to make do with what he has got. "If we can do it by the end of the deadline we will, if not we will focus on the players we already have," he said.

* Summer signing Samir Nasri has been recalled to the France squad for next week's double-header against Austria and Serbia after making a fine start to his career at the Emirates.

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