Arsene Wenger spoke with pride after watching his side steal three late points at Villa Park.
A late Yossi Benayoun header saw the Gunners put to bed any hangover from Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City and build momentum ahead of two further festive fixtures at the Emirates.
Reflecting on the result, the boss told Sky Sports News: “The draw was maybe fair, but we kept going and took our chances when we had opportunities.
“You have to give credit to Villa tonight, for me they had an outstanding commitment. They are quality and are a good side when they play with that level of commitment and attitude.
“They can beat anybody and we needed to be resilient to win the game. Our formidable spirit got us through.
“Yossi Benayoun got us [a goal] from a corner. That’s unusual for us, but it’s three important points. We are of course very happy.
“I must say as well we had two difficult away games over Christmas to City and Villa. Here for us Villa is always a difficult side and got three big points.”
Asked how tired his side were after Sunday’s trip to the Etihad Stadium, Wenger continued:
“Mentally and physically we had to give absolutely everything on Sunday because we chased the game. You could see that some legs were tired tonight.”
Further post-match reaction available via Arsenal.com.
vermaelen is class fact!!
Great results in the liverpool and newcastle games as well.
lol @ liverpool. but why would newcastle v west brom matter? neither is a threat to the arsenal!
True but its nice to see any team within a few places of you lose.
So what result are we wanting tomorrow night (apart from a 22 man fist-fight on an unprecedented scale)?
As much as I hate Chelsea, I would much rather they won and brought the silly Spuds back down to earth. Of course a draw would probably be the best result but like you said – other than something that obliterates both sets of players, a Chelsea win would do just fine for now.
Yes, I would like The Chelsea to win too, but the FA gave the Spuds advantage playing the game on Thursday night, where the Spuds are used to play on Thursday night. The game must be moved to a later date.
I hope we see Johnny Racist cop some of this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUHu4TAmNMM&feature=youtu.be
I’ve already decided that a draw tomorrow and a spurs loss against Everton puts us 3 points behind having played the same number if games. I’d love a loss for Spurs tomorrow but just can’t see it happening.
Chelsea to win, there is NO WAY we will finish below the sp*ds!
Chavs win, ‘Cocks’ lose.
gooners need to buy a quality attacker this jan if we want to be top 4 (we r 1 injury away from finishing 5th)
get rid of arshavin, hes just not gonna perform for us
Gustav, can you really see into the future? Quick, i’d better put a bet down now then……
yes steve i have a crystal ball, duh every top team needs a decent back up , we have got arshavin,chamakh,park, fills me with high expectation
Chelsea 7 spuds 2
Both side have 2 players send off with 2 straight red cards each.
red cards:
chelsea:mata,sturridge
spuds:bale & parker
Bale is injured!
Pos Team Pld Pts
3 Totten’m 15 34
4 Chelsea 16 32
5 Arsenal 17 32
The answer to your question is “a Chelsea win.” With that result, Arsenal will be three points off third place. With any other result, Arsenal will be at least three points from third with Sp*** having a game in hand.
chelski
Benayoun should play more. Good player and seems a good guy. I’m glad he’s here.
Totally agree. In fact I would like to see him start instead of Ramsey or Gervinho on occasion.
Completely agree. I thought Ramsey was average tonight and Benayoun should have come on sooner. Much less wasteful in possession. Ramsey really needs to up his game.
He’s good but not as good as Gerv, sorry.
Especially him replacing Ramsey. Rambo is getting a tad complacent cos he knows he will always start. And with the little he’s giving in terms of creativity, good competition will do him some good.
can’t blame ramsey for being picked though… he works his ass off every game at the very least. More than we ever got from the likes of denilson, bendtner, adebayor etc. or even diaby a lot of the time. He will be fantastic, but yes benayoun/rosicky should maybe start a game or two, at least to give rambo a break. Can imagine if rambo is struggling with the pace a little after coming back from a long term injury and having to fill the fabregas role immediately in his first full season. Wilshere coming back will provide some good competition… Read more »
I really like Benny! Can we keep him Arsene? PLEEEEEASE!!!
Absolutely agree. Benayoun is a talent, he might not be world class but certainly a hard worker and he’s shown some touches of class. I’d like to see him starting more games, certainly, but I don’t think we should let him go back to chelski.
Sign him up Arsene, sign him up. And give him more games.
Defo want Chelsea to stuff sp*rs! Wouldn’t even mind if john the racist Terry scored!!!
thnks yossi. song was really missed
Benayoun comes on and scores a header while Chamakh stays benched. Top boy.
Winning ugly! Looks like vp foreshadowed this before the match. As for chelsea vs spurs hmmm so long as the spuds don’t get a point am happy. Another racist episode for JT at the end would be nice. He just can’t do no right these days.
Last season this would have been a game we either drew or lost, so it’s 3 points gained in confidence. Wenger seems to have put together a real try-harder team and everyone wanted to win. Good to see Rosicky has changed his game to suit his injuries and although not as technique, the way he won the ball back with a well timed tackle that lead to the corner was a great sight. Those 2 subs really changed the game in a positive way and gave us a different style of play as the original tactics just weren’t working.
The idiot has got the nerve to say this about the red card incident – http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16296716.stm
Compared to this, ‘I didn’t see it’ was a million times better.
Hutton is a dirty cunt he’s only one tackle away from shawcrossing someone! Of course if he did snap someones leg (im sure he nearly did recently) and its deemed dangerous then he will get 3 games!!!! Suarez gets 8 games for using terms that are deemed politically incorrect! Before anyone gets excited I don’t think Suarez had a rough deal but that career ending tackles should be dealt similar or harsher sentences. What John Terry is alleged to have said however is inexcusable and a suitable punishment should be meted out, at least a season which is how far… Read more »
Could not agree more.
Personally, I am prepared to overlook any transgression when it comes to that complete and utter CUNT Patrice Evra.
And having Suarez out of Liverpool for being a stupid big mouthed racist fuck is a bonus.
So fuck you both very much Patrice and Luis.
The dirty bastard creamed shane long and got away with it I hope the spurs reject gets smashed someday
Suarez is a classless turd, and racism ought to be eradicated from life itself, but giving someone 8 games on an accusation alone seems like a dangerous precedent to me.
Let’s hope that the commission which meted out this punishment had more proof than we know of and took into account Suarez’ unsavory past and weighted it against him (if not that, then at least let’s hope they looked at his face and decided that no one with that kind of overbite should be seen on TV)
I have to say I think vermaelen knew full well Hutton was going to dive in recklessly there and simply carried on knowing that either Hutton would get a second yellow or would break his jaw on the verminators boot. Either way win win for football as a whole.
Verminator 1, Cuntton 0
It was very nice to get straight back to winning ways after the City defeat on Sunday. We didn’t play well but managed to win a tight contest. A few weeks ago we would have gone on to lose after Villa equalised – yesterday we kept it together and snatched it at the end. And it was great to see Benayoun get the winner (why didn’t he come on against City?) and for us to score from a corner. By the way: wasn’t the referee, Mr Moss, a complete arsehole? Instead of awarding us a penalty for the blatant foul… Read more »
RVPs yellow was an absolute joke. It wasn’t a penalty but to say it was a dive is down right stupid. (Not a penalty because he didn’t really have control of the ball), it should have been play on.
We should appeal the Yellow card, not for anything just to make the ref look right idiot.
Looked awfully like a penalty to me.
It WAS a penalty. It’s didn’t matter whether or not RvP was in control of the ball, he was fouled in the penalty area, therefore it’s a penalty. It was not a sending off because the foul didn’t prevent a clear goalscoring opportunity, the ball had gotten away from him. But RvP WAS fouled – he didn’t dive.
Jon Moss: you’re a knob.
We d have lost that game last season, come on you reds!
First time I have encouraged stealing. Can we now go steal both Demba Ba and Junior Hoillet in January? Any top team that steals any of those will sure go far.
I read that Ba has scored 24 in 20 games for Newcastle. Can that be right?! His record is van Persie-esque!
The Coq was very strong and penetrative throughout the game
motm today was wenger with his perfectly timed substitutions. he’s a genius
Id love to see rosicky and benayoun get more starting berths. I don’t understand the logic of playing a tired Rambo (cos he played Sunday) when we have multiple players who can fill that void who are fresh as. Rambo looked like he had nothing in the tank today, and it’s probably because he didn’t! That’s not putting him down, but he worked hard on Sunday
3 points away – thanking you. One thing that really pissed me off last night was that prat Alan Hutton. Should of been shown a straight red for shoving right under the refs nose and using abusive language/behaviour. But he was allowed to carry on, even after his 1st caution, he simply waved the ref off and stormed upto RVP (or RVP stormed upto him) and quite clearly said “Im going to f**king have you”………then 30 seconds later he lunges in on TV and rightly gets his marching orders. I know how quick tempers can flair, beleive me, but the… Read more »
would’ve liked to see The Ox come on for Gervinho in the 2nd half. Have Theo roam on both flanks. YOSSI needs a few starts he adds something a little unusual to the Arsenal and he has heart. Wanna see some transfers in Jan, we looked leggy in midfield and anxious defensively.
OH YEAH…. Worst Yellow I have ever seen TWAT CUNT REF! May not have been a free kick…. but simulation?? What a complte FuckWit.