Arsene Wenger reveals his Arsenal stars were unsettled by transfer talk before 4-0 Liverpool drubbing

ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger claims a number of his players were "tapped up" before the 4-0 drubbing at Liverpool.

The Gunners boss started both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Alexis Sanchez in the shambolic display at Anfield - despite both men being set to depart.

The Ox would eventually get his move as he joined their opponents that afternoon just days later in a £40million deal.

But Sanchez was left seething as his deadline day switch to Manchester City collapsed as Arsenal failed to land a replacement for the Chilean.

There has also been doubts over the future of Shkodran Mustafi in addition to the North London side officially warning off Barcelona over their pursuit of Hector Bellerin.

With these problems in mind, Wenger is all for the shortening of the summer transfer window and believes the January one should also be scrapped.

And in a rather unusual open and frank press conference, the French coach gave an honest answer when asked whether he thought his players had been tapped up before the match on Merseyside.

Wenger said: “You are not naive enough to think that will not  happen. Have they been tapped up? Of course.

“But on the day of a game? I don’t think so. I hope not. But it’s inevitable.

“France played against Holland on the last day of the transfer window. Do you really think that not one French player or Dutch player had phone calls in the afternoon? I’m not naive enough to believe that.

“That’s why you have to scrap it before the season starts.

“Many things happen in the last second, which I regret. You sit there before the games and, in  players’ minds, they have no clarity. Are they in? Are they out? Are they half in? Are they half out? Are they tapped up in the afternoon of the game by people who want to get them out?

“It’s not the way to work and it’s uncomfortable.

“Every single manager in the league would agree that it’s time to kick that out before the season starts and not continue to have players in the dressing room who are half out and half in.”

The summer transfer window was one the craziest we have ever seen.

Take a look at the most profitable transfers of ALL time.

And here are the Premier League players whose wages made them the most expensive per minute played.

Keep up to date with all the latest news, gossip, rumours and done deals in SunSport’s LIVE transfer blog