Wenger: I'm still the right fit for Arsenal

The French coach, 63, has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks, which intensified following the Capital One Cup defeat at npower League Two Bradford.

Wenger has not won a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup and there have been calls for him to step aside.

However, the long-serving Gunners boss, whose current deal runs until the summer of 2014, insists he is as hungry for success as ever.

"My job is to be determined and give importance to what is important. What is important is I love football, I love this club and I give my best for this club. The rest, I cannot interfere with," Wenger said on Friday morning ahead of the Barclays Premier League game at Reading on Monday night.

"Believe me, I am highly focused on doing that and all the rest, that doesn't interfere with my thinking at all.

"I am very determined and very hungry and if I wasn't, I wouldn't sit in front of you."

Wenger, who sits on board meetings, has been criticised as being too powerful within the club - branded "a dictator in many ways" by one former Arsenal player, and now media pundit, Stewart Robson.

The Gunners boss, however, feels his experiences give him a position of strength.

"I can understand that people criticise when the results are not as expected, but it looks like it has become the modern way to think," he said.

"You say that 16 years can be a handicap, but as well it can be an advantage because you have experience, you love the club.

"If I sit here, it is because I have really shown how much I love this club.

"Also, you know you have gone through difficult periods before and you know how to turn it around."

Some of the Arsenal players have come in for personal criticism - with much directed towards Ivory Coast forward Gervinho following another poor display at Bradford, where he missed an open goal from two yards.

Wenger, however, insisted there was genuine pain inside the dressing room and a determination to put things right.

"You think they don't care and they go home and think they had a fantastic game? They do care," he said.

"We prepare for games seriously.

"I have had groups who had fantastic results who were less serious than these players, believe me, players who were less focused than this team. Of course these players are hurting."

Wenger added: "We have not kicked on (from last season), that is true, but we have rebuilt a team this year and we will see where we finish.

"We have qualified for the (knockout stages of the) Champions League for 13 successive years. When I listen to you [journalists], it must be a mistake there: why is this team in this spot? It sounds like we should be in a Championship spot.

"At the moment, you have to take a little bit of distance as well before making a definite judgement on what we are capable of doing.

"This season at the moment we are not happy with what we have produced, but we will turn it around before the end of the season."

While Wenger is expected to look to strengthen the squad in January, the Arsenal manager rejected suggestions the club should just take up the offer of a cash injection from Uzbek businessman Alisher Usmanov, whose Red & White Holdings group are Arsenal's second-largest shareholder.

"I have always said the same, which is that we want to produce the money from our own resources," Wenger added.