Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has expressed worries that French midfield duo Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira may have difficulty rediscovering their appetite for the game next season after achieving a unique Premiership, FA Cup and World Cup treble.

Wenger has some confidence that both players are intelligent enough to realise that whatever high they may have been on when they helped France to win the World Cup, they must now start again from scratch next month.

And he believes that Vieira, who is still just 22, and Petit, who has played only one full season as a midfielder, have a great deal more to offer.

But the nagging doubts remain as to what mental state they will be in when they return to pre-season training on August 2nd.

Dutch duo Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars will also have had just three weeks off from football when they report back for training a day earlier.

Wenger said of his fellow Frenchmen: "Victory sometimes makes you lazy and that's why you sometimes have to be cautious."

Wenger was also asked about reports that Dutch team physios had recommended that Overmars and Bergkamp should be given more than three weeks to recover from their exertions for their country.

The Arsenal boss said: "We will adapt to their physical shape but we will have to wait and see. Yet if that's true then I would be a little bit unhappy as that would mean that Marc shouldn't have played."