The Gunners slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Stoke yesterday, with Rory Delap's devastating long throw teeing up goals for Ricardo Fuller and Seyi Olofinjana before Gael Clichy's deflected consolation.

Wenger shuffled his pack for the match, with four changes from the side that drew 4-4 in an exhausting north London derby in midweek.

But the Frenchman, facing the prospect of three games in six days, starting with Wednesday's Champions League clash against Fenerbahce, is already starting to see signs of fatigue.

And injuries to Theo Walcott, Emmanuel Adebayor and Bacary Sagna at the Britannia Stadium, as well as a red card for Robin van Persie, are unlikely to ease Wenger's concerns.

"We tried hard to win but Stoke, at the moment, are very sharp physically," he said.

"We looked a bit jaded because we have played a lot of games recently.

"At the moment we are suffering. I don't believe it is confidence; we put a lot in on Wednesday night and we play again in midweek in Europe.

"We have very bad injuries. We have Adebayor, Walcott and Sagna as well as one or two others who have knocks, but that's the kind of game we played here.

"When you are not as sharp, you are less agile and you can't get as quickly out of tackles."

He added: "We had lots of possession against a team who defended very well and was very well organised, but we were not sharp enough to to create chances with the possession we had."

Stoke boss Tony Pulis refused to get carried away by his side's third win in four outings.

If victories over an off-colour Sunderland and a Tottenham side at the messy end of the Juande Ramos era could be seen as lesser scalps, three points against an Arsenal side containing world stars like Cesc Fabregas and Adebayor is a result worth savouring.

But Pulis insists his side will be better judged by how well they react to losses than how vigorously they celebrate their successes.

"It's a fantastic result, but we'll just bob along," said Pulis.

"There'll be ups and downs and we'll have to get used to coming back from defeats. We're in the Premier League now.

"When you're getting promoted you think you've been a successful team and I think we lost the least number of games last year. But we've come up and we had a tough start, without a question of doubt.

"When you're used to winning, getting defeats at a different level does put doubt in people's minds.

"But you have to keep the players believing they will come through it. If you lose that belief at the football club, you are in big trouble."

Pulis denied suggestions Wenger's decision to start with Walcott, Van Persie and Samir Nasri on the bench showed any lack of respect.

Instead, he insisted every match this term will be a test - be it against a slightly under-strength Arsenal side, or next week's opponents, Wigan.

He added: "I was still frightened to death of the team they put out. They have great players and a great manager and they will definitely bounce back.

"We play Wigan next and that will be a tough game too. We had Adebayor playing today... next it could be Roman Pavlyuchenko, Robinho or Fernando Torres.

"We're playing at a different level now, playing against great players every week."