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Mathieu Flamini has urged Arsenal fans not to lose patience with striker Yaya Sanogo because he is confident the 21-year-old can become the top class forward the club needs.
Sanogo, who joined on a free transfer from Auxerre last year, extended his run without a goal at the club to 17 games as Arsenal laboured to a 1-1 draw at Leicester yesterday.
Supporters sitting in the away end cheered when the 21-year-old was replaced by Lukas Podolski with 13 minutes remaining and chanted angrily at manager Arsene Wenger in the closing stages to ‘buy a striker’.
With Arsenal running out of time to add one to the squad before the deadline expires tonight and Olivier Giroud ruled out until the new year with a broken leg, their title challenge could suffer.
But Flamini is convinced Sanogo is good enough to fill the void. When asked by Standard Sport if the fans should give him more backing, said: “He's a young player and will perform game after game. It's important for him to play and he will become stronger and stronger.
“Yaya is a young player with a lot of qualities and game after game he will get stronger and better. If he's part of this team it's because he's full of quality.
“Is he affected mentally by having not scored yet? I don't think so. He's a young player, he needs to play. I don't think it's a problem.”
Arsenal go into the international break having started the campaign with a five-game unbeaten run, which includes the victory over Besiktas in the Champions League qualifier.
Their failure to win at Everton and Leicester, however, means that they’re already four points behind title rivals Chelsea.
Wenger’s side face defending champions Manchester City at home on the resumption of the Premier League and could see the gap extended to seven if they suffer a costly defeat and Chelsea beat Swansea.
Flamini is already fully aware of what a crucial match it could be, but is adamant that Arsenal’s start to the season has still been a good one.
Leicester v Arsenal - player ratings
He added: “The important thing when you want to go to the end (and win something) is not to lose a game and we haven’t done that in our first five games. Obviously we wanted to win at Leicester but it didn't happen. We didn't lose and that's still a good point.
“But it is important to recover and focus for the next game because it will be a big one against Manchester City.”
