Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger hopes to give his key players up to four weeks rest even if that means they will miss the opening of the Premier League campaign.

Euro 2016 semi-finalists Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny, the latter two of whom made the final with hosts France only to lose in extra-time to Portugal, could all be in line to miss the Premier League season's opening game, at home to Liverpool.

"I believe that they need four weeks' holiday because they need to recover from that," Wenger told Arsenal Player.

"It takes you two or three weeks to regenerate… to recover completely, and they need to come back with hunger. That disappointment [for Koscielny and Giroud] to lose a final, it takes some time to recover from that.

"I believe the club benefits from [our players'] experiences at the top level, and the mental experiences as well that they have gone through with such a huge pressure. Of course in the longer term you benefit from that.

"Apart from England - who of course came out a bit early - some players had a very positive experience, like Aaron Ramsey with Wales, Alexis with Chile - they won again the Copa America so that's of course a fantastic achievement because they were away from home this time.

"The French players, Giroud and Koscielny, had a good tournament [even if] they didn't finish as well as they hoped. I think Ozil had a good tournament as well. I met him after the game with France, he was of course very disappointed but most of them had good performances."