Arsene Wenger says he told lies to protect his players from punishment

Wenger revealed that he sometimes turned a blind eye to misdemeanours committed by his team out of a sense of loyalty to his squad.

The joke for years at Highbury and then Emirates Stadium was that every time the Frenchman was asked in post-match interviews about any red-card incident involving his players he would insist that "he had not seen it".

Now, on the eve of Arsenal's opening match of the Premier League season against Everton, Wenger (right) has come clean on the reasons why.

"At times I see it [a foul by an Arsenal player], and I said I didn't to protect the player, because I could not find any rational explanation to defend him.

"This is a job where you have to have an optimistic view of human nature or you become paranoid. You always have to think that a guy wants to do well.

"A coach is there to help. He must think that if he helps in the correct way the players will respond. You cannot be suspicious."

Wenger has also spoken about his long-term project at Arsenal and admitted he would have been "betraying his beliefs" if he had abandoned it to go and work for Real Madrid.

"I want to go to the end of my job here. I built this team, I want to deliver with this team and I feel that if I left I would in some way have betrayed my beliefs," he told the Daily Mail.

"It is nothing to do with what Real Madrid have done. I just couldn't see leaving this team at this stage of their development."

Wenger stressed his main objective is to create a coherent side, rather than to try and build a team around a handful of key individuals.

"I believe in working in our job, creating connections between the players. I believe in what makes football great," said Wenger.

"It is a team sport, a collective sport. You can win because you are more a team, or because you have more individual talent. What is interesting for me is the team ethic. I love Davis Cup, but I am not a big fan of individual tennis. It is when sport is about the team that I like it. I like the Ryder Cup."

The 59-year-old also gave an insight into how football still dominates his life, and drew comparisons between his attitude to the game and the late Sir Bobby Robson, who died last month after a long fight against cancer.

"The worst is to have no target," Wenger added. "Imagine you get up in the morning and you do nothing. You enjoy one minute. Then there is another minute. But what do you do next? Can you dedicate your whole life to this? Somewhere within us is the desire to feel that we are useful and that we have some quality.

"Did you see the last game Sir Bobby Robson watched (at St James' Park)? Just a charity game, but still he had that spark in his eye.

"He could have sat at home, yet he chose to go there. He had two, three days to live and that is where he wanted to be. Yet what would he have done at home — sat there and thought about dying, maybe terrified? The way to get through was to enjoy his passion."

Wenger is without six players for tomorrow's match at Goodison Park, with Tomas Rosicky (hamstring), Samir Nasri (broken leg), Theo Walcott (back), Johan Djourou (knee) and Lukasz Fabianski (knee) all ruled out while Abou Diaby (groin) is a doubt.