Hodgson, whose side visit the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, believes the Gunners have started to overcome the summer loss of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. He witnessed at first hand their stunning 5-3 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge courtesy of a Robin van Persie hat-trick, and knows Albion will have to improve on last weekend's performance against Liverpool to have any chance of repeating last season's 3-2 win at Arsenal. Hodgson said: "Are Arsenal back? Have they ever been away? Where did they go? There was all the stuff about Arsene being under the spotlight and pressure. "I think all managers at this level will accept they come under the spotlight and pressure if your team isn't winning as many games as people would like to see you win. "But I would find it very hard to believe if Arsenal FC were considering Wenger's future because for the last 15 years he has done a fantastic job. "He has proved himself to be one of the best managers in the world and has made that club an enormous amount of money when other clubs are losing money and staring administration in the face. "He has made that club stronger and stronger, richer and richer. His list of achievements just goes on and on." Hodgson added: "I put those moments when even people like Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson are called into question as one of the amusing aspects of the job. "Arsene has had a chance after the upheavals of the summer with Fabregas and Nasri to accept it is time to move on from those players and to bring new players in. "Those new players are bedding in better and better, at least if you look at the results it would seem that way because they are doing very well at the moment." Hodgson is demanding a positive approach from his players after a run of 11 points from six games was halted by Kenny Dalglish's side. He said: "Had we played better against Liverpool I might have been tempted to say it was two teams in quite good form at the Emirates. "We showed Liverpool too much respect and didn't perform as well as we would have liked last weekend. "After four or five good results, it was not only a disappointing result but I'd have liked to have thought we could give them a much better game than we did. "But I think that was a blip and I'm sure we will be back to those previous performances on Saturday afternoon." Hodgson is hoping Albion can cause problems for the Gunners defence, but knows they will have to be at their best to halt their attacking threat. He said: "Like all teams that are very good going forward they are going to give us a chance, one hopes on the counter-attack. "There is no doubt one of the first problems you've got to deal with is that they are very good on the ball. They do create a lot of chances and make you work hard defensively to keep them at bay. "That is the first priority but if we can do that, hopefully there will be some opportunity for us to play as well. I'd like to think we've also got players who can cause their defence problems. "But there are no easy solutions. We are talking about one of the top teams in the league and you know you are up against it."
