Wenger unsure if contract uncertainty is affecting players

Amid a relatively dire campaign and with a new two-year deal awaiting the Frenchman's signature, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admits he's unsure if the uncertainty over his future is affecting the players.

Wenger spoke to reporters ahead of Monday's trip to Middlesbrough, and with his 20-year spell with the north London side hanging in the balance while protests demanding his dismissal dominate the headlines, the manager hopes the suspicion is not having an adverse effect on his squad.

"I honestly don't know but I hope not," Wenger said, courtesy of the Evening Standard's Mark Mann-Bryans.

"When I speak about mental test it is to perform, no matter what the circumstances are around you. Is that an influence? I'd say I hope not."

With just five league wins in 12 outings since the New Year coupled with ghastly defeats against the likes of West Brom, Watford, and Crystal Palace, Arsenal's mental strength has come into question, and with constant chatter that the team is routinely unprepared, so too has the manager's virtues.

"But what is for sure is that in the last three months there has been no consistency, especially away from home. At home we have not been disastrous in the quality of performance," Wenger added.

Sitting seventh ahead of Monday's match at the Riverside and desperate for a 21st consecutive top-four finish, Arsenal has been a shadow of the side that kicked off the campaign with five victories in eight, and much of that stems from the drop in form of star playmaker Mesut Ozil.

With a contract that's set to expire in 2018, and with talk of a high-profile exit, Wenger was asked if his current situation has any bearing on the German World Cup winner in particular.

"I don't know," Wenger said. "It can sometimes ... He may be coming to the end of his contract but you perform until the last day of that contract. That is how I see it.

"The impact of that (his future) I don't know. We have to focus on what is important and that is what happens on the pitch. Top-level sportsmen have to be like that."