The Frenchman launched a broadside at Stoke on the eve of the visit of Fenerbahce, accusing Tony Pulis' side of deliberately hurting Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor at the weekend.

Both were carried to the dressing room during the 2-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium and both miss tonight's match, leaving Wenger angry.

"I read that my team were not brave. All I can say is they are brave and, for me, you need to have more courage to play football when you know that someone is tackling you from behind without any intention to play the ball," said the Frenchman.

"The only intention is to hurt you and I can show some tackles where I can prove what I say.

"Do you think (Rory) Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott? Or that (Ryan) Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor off the pitch. All the players have been injured deliberately."

Walcott has a chance of regaining fitness in time for Saturday's clash with Manchester United but Adebayor has already been ruled out.

Arsenal were held to a 4-4 draw by Spurs despite leading 4-2 with two minutes to go before the Stoke match and Wenger knows his side can ill afford to drop more points, hence the need to clinch an instant passage to next stage of the Champions League, which will happen tonight if they win and Dynamo Kiev beat Porto.

He said: "I believe that once you qualify in the Champions League you can be completely focused and if needed, rest some players in the Champions League.

"That is why for us, it is important to qualify as quickly as possible, especially as we didn't win our last game.

"We had two bad experiences recently and that is why it is important to come back to winning ways and to qualify.

"We have not been efficient recently with our results in the last two games and that is why it is important to come back and win."

With Adebayor and Walcott absent Wenger will turn to Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie as his front pairing tonight.

But 19-year-old Mexican Carlos Vela can look forward to getting more Champions League experience under his belt at some point, especially as Wenger feels he is not yet ready for regular league action.

He said: "I believe Carlos is an outstanding striker and will be a top goalscorer as he is one of the best finishers I have seen personally.

"He is 19 and plays at a top club but we believe he needs not to improve his finishing or his technical qualities but to adjust to the combative side of the English game."

Bendtner insisted he was relishing both games. He said: "If we win tomorrow it will be a massive boost for the Manchester United game.

"Morale is strong. We all know what has happened and we have to put it behind us. We need to regroup and be strong again as a unit.

"Everyone knows what the qualities of the team are and how we can play so we just need to do that and get back to winning ways."