Arsene Wenger has paid tribute to his young Arsenal squad after they secured a 3-1 aggregate win over Udinese to seal a 14th successive season of Champions League football.
Second half goals from Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott, either side of a vital penalty save by Wojciech Szczesny, helped sealed a 2-1 win on the night as the Gunners fought back from 1-0 down at half-time to ease the tension which has been hanging over the red side of North London in recent weeks.
Speaking to ITV after the match the Frenchman reflected: “It’s a relief of course because we didn’t want to go out. I feel pride as well because we had our backs to the wall at half-time and responded very well in the second half. There was only one team on the pitch in the second half
“Wojciech saved the penalty, which was [given] very generously. Overall though we had a great football game tonight.
“Since the beginning of the season when we finished games with eleven players we always won the game.
“Under pressure [this team] can respond with football. They remained calm and composed on the ball and tried to play like we can play. They showed great belief in the way we want to play football.
“There are many questions around our club, if we had gone out tonight it would of course had been much worse for the team to play in a serene way. It was very important tonight, not financially as many people said, but more for the fact we want to play at the top level.”
Asked if the result, and another season of Champions League football, would now result in him spending money in the transfer market, Wenger continued:
“We work very hard on it, I’ve said that many times. We have many players out. The team that played tonight was missing top class players. I think we can be very positive.
“There may be signings, but I cannot give you any name tonight. I cannot lie and say we signed somebody, because it’s not true. We try very hard.”
Fuck yes! This result was just what the doctor prescribed. Now let’s get some quality players in.
Also:
https://twitter.com/#!/mattspiro/status/106470326313029632
“Wenger was just interviewed post-match by Lille coach Rudi Garcia on Canal+. Presenter mentioned Eden Hazard, Wenger smiled… Garcia didnt!”
😀
Was Lille coach the interviewer?
Great way to shake of the bloodsucking press. Then again Man Utd compared to udinese is a completely diff game. So will we see Arshavin stand up and been counted? will we see enough determination in the middleof the field and will we see clinical finishing? Let’s fuckng hope so. Come on you Arsenal…
Very scary words great tonight but it changes nothing about what this club needs in terms of top class players. Really hope arsene don’t see this result as justification to not buy
Got more chance of signing the dukes of hazard
I’d be happy with Daisy Duke ! 😉
Maybe we could swap Squid for her, one great Tit for two. Great deal.
For today let’s just enjoy this , Tomorrow we can worry about Hazard, Cahill , etc. and every other MF’er that has been linked to us
Too fucking right mate! Top fucking result, top fucking performance! Fuck everything & everyone else! Come on you reds!!
Suddenly, we are a ‘strong’ outfit again!
Great win. I’ve been slagging Rosicky, but he was great today especially with his tackles.
Agreed. He had a storming half of football. He worked really hard and like you say, got a lot of tackles in, most of them excellently timed. Fingers crossed he can avoid injury and play like that more often.
Yep, he’s greatly improved.
agreed – massive game for him. he stepped up big time – as did theo.
Hooray some positive comments! Come on gooners let’s really get behind the team now, sick of the constant slagging off, FORWARD!!
Now that we have this sorted, its time to bring in the players we’ve been scouting and build on the win.
glad we made it! Wenger’s pride/stubborness now swells!!(hopefully not!)
He’s been a busy little bastard, that Rosicky.
Inspired substitution.
He played brilliantly, fair play to him, it was good to see. Even allowing for his horrendous injury luck, fingers x’d we get a bit more of the Borussia Dortmund variety Rosicky this season.
Great win and what a penalty save, maybe our defense will be as good as our offense last year, interesting change but would prefer goals and verm, kos and szcez dominating the premier league
Very good performance. Let’s hope it gives the boys some confidence. Doesn’t change the fact we need 2/3 quality signings.
Arsene was instrumental at half time and it was good to see. Well done all the boys tonight, its inspiring we won an important game with the stick we’ve been getting.
Na$ri is a cunt!
Who? Na$ri? Never heard of him! Sounds like a cunt though. . . . .
The Guardian are already reporting a £22m bid for M’Vila. Quick work lads.
i don’t know much about the player but says here he’s kinda holding midfield? surely we need someone a bit more creative further up the park? It’s going to be this guy + frimpong + song, 3 holding midfielders with an average age of 20? lol?
Christ he will buy now won t he?
Rosicky was superb tonight, changed the game 2nd half i reckon. LANS!
It was a good swap power to start, experience to finish.
Wenger should have given last 20 mins to Chamberlain. Really looking forward to seeing the kid who is worth half a Fabregas
lol lets not think of it like that….
With new signings looking likely, plus Koscielny, Gibbs, Gervinho and Song to be LANS in the next few weeks, things are looking good!
#DEEEEENCH
Arsene will not strengthen. He says we are strong and when we get Diaby and Wilshere back we will be deep. He is not going to spend the money. Not sure why but he is dooming our season.
Mark my words. He may buy one player but he wont splash the cash.
Oh do one texasgooner6 it’s bad enough having the entire media belittling our club without our own ‘fans’ doing it too on a night we just showed real character and class….I’m proud to be an arsenal fan tonight we got rid of a poisonous French cunt and are through to the champions league again if you cant be happy tonight maybe stop watching football or support the yids
Seconded!
wat does lans mean
Like a new signing. It’s Wenger speak.
See also ALANS – almost like a new signing.
Here’s looking forward to the odd ANS in the next week.
LANS – Phrase coined by Wenger to describe players returning from injury. E.g. Thomans Vermaelen is like a new signing.
Wot a difference a day makes re all ur comments. Yday we was shit and heading for gutter…..but……in last four matches we have won two, drew one and unfortunately due to a sending off lost the other. Patience ppl………in Arsene we trust???
Not really , support has been there all the way through, tempered with a sensible requirement for new additions. The differance tonight , Texasmoaner aside, is that all the gloom merchants are biding there time to strike the next time the constellation Orion is passing through the orbit of saturn and shit vitriol on a team they purport to support. Quite frankly I wish they’d fuck off. We all know the deficiencies in our team its not rocket science, but its time to man up and be a supporter, not a booing, spoilt retard.
Well said.
As Arsene said tonight – in every game so far this season we’ve finished with 11 players on the pitch we’ve won every game. . . . .
It did seem like the ref. was doing his best to get one Gunner sent off. How many yellows did we get in the space of 10mins? 3? 4?
Don’t get me started on the penalty he gave against the Verminator with his hands by his side. At the other end though the Udinese handball was outstretched and in the box and all we got was a free kick!
Glad the team managed to let their football do the talking this time.
Yeh but in the days of the invincible team we carried lots of red cards showing our steel did we not???
FUCK YEAH!!!!!
The team delivered for us. They did a fucking job out there against a very dangerous, motivated side. Well played too.
FUCKING AWESOME!
Great win but the most interesting thing tonight was rvp twice mentioning in tv interviews about the club spending money on players and getting new faces in
“I can’t say what I did. It’s something that shouldn’t be said on TV but it worked and he (Di Natale) came to me after the game and said “well done son”. I felt a little bit stupid because he’s quite a nice guy”
How much do we love this guy?
O fuck yes I’m in LA avoided hearing the score just watched it, fuck yeah! Chezza! We ran them into the ground 2nd half. Ps fuck Nasri the little female-to-male tranny…
Great great great win !
Well played and fully deserved. Now go out there and buy us some kick ass players Arsene !
Fuck Nasri
Get rid of the bad influence in the team and you’ll get the team spirit.
I’m very happy they qualified, very happy indeed, but I’m sorry, this win just covers the cracks for a few days. I always give credit when and where it’s due, and it’s more than fair to say they showed some heart. However we played a team we would’ve destroyed afew seasons ago, and to be quite frank we are only in the champions league for the money. It’s either that or to make up the numbers because we certainly ain’t winning it are we. I don’t care if you lot say I’m negative after we won lastnight because come Sunday… Read more »
Miserable PRAT get a life
prat
Basically someone whos a major idiot, or is delusional and dumb. Acts against logic and thinks hes self-righteous.
If you can’t see what’s happening to the club, I think you are the prat my friend. And I’ve got a life, I’m sure it’s alot better than yours!!!!
The Glazerhawks’ midfield last year was shite, propped up by old men and a useless Fletcher. And yet they won the league. Perhaps you know more than Arsene Wenger, despite your post suggesting that you know less than the square root of Juande Ramos. Who knows? It’s only my humble opinion, but the shit people spout on the internets is a fucking annoyance and the spoilt whingeing in the stadium is worse. Given we can’t compete on wages, having a decent set of fans might just fucking help sign somebody, and yet all the cunts claiming they want that are… Read more »
Ok mate, let’s see what you are saying on Sunday evening!
@ Chamron.. If we play crap on Sunday we would say it. No one here is saying the team is great and does not need strengthening. The point is the team has pulled thru this and positioned the club for better reinforcements. Let’s enjoy the victory, congratulate the players and hope that Wenger buys the necessary players to complement what we have. It’s a sport so if u can’t enjoy the victories and feel the disappointment of the losses then why bother?
N
@ghanagooner. Fair enough bro, I absolutely agree with you. Perhaps I’m a bit too passionate about arsenal, I just want the best for my team that’s all.
@Chamron there was a time before 1998 when arsenal didn’t qualify for europe every season; where the most we had to look forward to would be the propsect of a cup run (maybe to the semi finals!); where the exciting signings would be some england has-been on fat wages seeing out the last gasps of their career (think Joe Cole; back then it was Paul Mariner). You seem to think that expecting automatic qualification makes you passionate. I’m afraid it makes you look rather entitled, not to mention ignorant about the club you profess to love. Still, you’ll be gone… Read more »
[…] Wenger spoke afterwards about the belief and confidence the team showed. For a full transcript of what he said, click here. Robin Van Persie also spoke about the result, […]
[…] has also stated that players are being chased, however no names now. Classic Arsene. He did admit that being in CL does help to attract players so hopefully some […]
boo