Arsene Wenger is considering another change to his formation against Bournemouth on Saturday following Arsenal’s poor start to the season.

His team had switched from the 4-2-3-1 system they used for most of the past decade to three central defenders in April and promptly ended the season with nine wins in 10 matches, but consecutive defeats have prompted considerable reflection during the international break.

It is understood that systems using both three and two central defenders have been used in training and even the players have been uncertain what formation they will play. Arsenal have struggled to find a defensive balance this season, although Wenger is only considering tweaks within the context of his wider possession-based philosophy and he reacted strongly yesterday to a suggestion that his team should fundamentally change.

“That’s where I think in England you come to the wrong conclusions always – if England has not won on an international level in over 50 years, it’s maybe time at some stage to come to the right conclusions,” he said. “To convince people that to win you have to play ugly is for me a wrong debate. If you take the biggest teams in the world, they all play football. Brazil has won how many World Cups? They play football. Germany play football.

“Real Madrid play football, Barcelona play football. Yes, we didn’t play well enough the way we want to play, I agree with you, but to come out to a conclusion that you have to kick the ball into the stand to win football games is the wrong conclusion.

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“Do you question yourself? Yes. But not question things that are absolutely not obvious because you lose one game. That’s where I believe it’s important that people around the team continue to believe in what we do. We have a good enough squad to compete.”