Arsene Wenger admits Arsenal weren’t at their fluid best during their 3-1 win over Stoke City and says he’s surprised the result came courtesy of three goals from set-pieces.
Aaron Ramsey, Per Mertesacker and Bacary Sagna each pounced in the box from Mesut Ozil free-kicks to seal the three points that returned the Gunners to the top of the table leaving Wenger to reflect on a satisfactory week.
“When the third goal went in, we just kept the result,” the boss told press after the game.
“It’s been a positive, very good week for us because we won in Marseille, we won in Sunderland, we won today. Overall it was a very positive week.
“We were in a position where we could take advantage of our home game and we did it. We had two [different] halves, the first one was fluent, we did well going forward.
“In the second half we looked jaded physically and lost our game a bit. In the end we lost our technical quality but we have shown again another aspect as well, that we can dig deep and fight when we are a bit under pressure.
“When you play against Stoke you don’t expect to score three goals from set-pieces and that is basically the biggest surprise to me today. It shows as well how important the delivery is. He [Ozil] is a player, when you look at his numbers, the assists are not a coincidence, it’s just the reality of his game.”
On a run of seven consecutive victories since the opening day defeat to Aston Villa, talk has now turned to whether an Ozil-inspired Arsenal can challenge for the title.
Taking the pressure of the record-signing from Germany, the boss stressed that his only focus at the moment is ensuring his team keeps improving.
“He [Ozil] gave a lift to everybody at the Club and, for the rest, it will be the quality of our teamwork and our teamplay that will decide that.
“The only thing of our position at the moment is that we are in a position where we can focus on improvement in a stable environment, so that’s a good basis. For the the rest, [in] the table everyone is mathematically together.”
Asked about the problem which saw Theo Walcott removed late in the day from the starting line-up, the boss revealed it wasn’t illness but an abdominal problem.
“He had an abdominal muscle problem, I don’t really know what it is. Is it a question of days? I hope so, because he had a test before the game and I decided to play him. I hope it’s nothing.”
So am I!
Cheers Arsene!
TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!
LALALLALAAAAAAAAAAAAA~!
Wenger, my advice to you is to play the full team on Wednesday, or we will get spanked by WBA, and our only hope of a trophy will be gone this season.
I did not see ze comment.
Oh piss off you Royal twat.
we had a “disjointed” performance… the reason is simple, really… although stoke, under their new style, were keeping the ball well, they were not doing anything of significance with it and weren’t exactly throwing players forward…. they nearly always maintained good shape defensively… giroud was stuck up front battling it out with huth and shawcross (and was doing quite well)… gnabry, quite understandable, is not yet experienced enough to make those clevel runs to recieve filick-ons from giroud, ozil waa passing the ball well but dribbling is really not his style and only did it when really necessary… the only… Read more »
I would prefer a ‘disjointed’ 3-1 over a ‘jointed’ 1-3 any day!
awesome game this,
tell the people in charge to carve a statue for Ramsey already!
OOOOOZIL to the Arsenal!
3-1 without Thoe, Santi, Poldi, Ox, Rosicky. No wonder our performance was “disjointed”. The same set of players was playing their 3rd game in 9 days. Can’t wait for us to have some of our first-teamers back. By the looks of it even Arteta, Rosicky, Ox will have problem walking back into the team. Good days.
So no one could score a set piece againts them… especially us… o k
Did u all see how èffective the lad Ryo was team, i thought his movements was slèek, an attack minded lad, him and buddy ozil can play without the handbrake on
i don’t know, i saw him work hard but i think he needs some regular game time, looks a decent squad player but i dont think we should put any pressure on him just yet let the lad play his game and find his feet, start him vs WBA i reckon
He worked hard to keep the result and he had 2 good runs on the counter. Give him more time and he’ll get there.
GOD BLESS YOU OZIL.. Atlast we have a genius to create the goals. Salam on you.
selam* 🙂
(salam means salami in Turkish)
ozil’s impact has been far greater than his quality on the pitch – it has visibly boosted the team and instilled self-belief. last season, we’d have huffed and puffed to win a game like this. today, we never got out of 3rd gear. too early to say we’ll win the league, but watching arsenal hasn’t felt this good for a long time…
Speaks Arsene!!
Arsenal are playing very sensible right now. When 2 goals up we are reserving stamina and defend, because we have a thin squad and Wenger don’t want his best players get injured.
Wenger claims we spent only 21 million on Ozil. Did you see the quote? What do you make of it?
Look at the official transcript on the dot.com
Guess he meant the average spending for Özil and Flamini
Who’s seen the club”s season group picture. There’s a big player after viviano, the new keeper and I can’t seem to make him out’
It’s Bendtner. Also had to look at the caption to remember who Park was!
Shows you how important it is for Theo to NOT to take set pieces.
The other day somebody posted something about ‘geometric progression’. I Googled it.
Fuck yes, our season in the EPL so far has been startlingly and awesomely ‘geometrically progressive’…
Week 1: 16th place
Week 2: 8th place
Week 3: 4th place
Week 4: 2th place
Week 5: 1th place
Thanks yes, that was me 🙂 And I was proved right, we have completed the progression.
It’ll be interesting to see how it goes between now and Christmas. Remember, we haven’t played Man City, Chelsea or Liverpool yet, nor Man United who may be down in 8th but have played all three. It’s early days yet — but it’s looking good. GOYG!!
RamZil
No, Week one were at 17th place;
Week two, 8th place; Week three 4th,Week four 2nd place and now Week five 1st place. Long may the progression continue!
Sorry to contradict you, but after the first weekend’s matches had all been played by Monday evening (when Newcastle lost 4-0 at Man City) Arsenal _were indeed_ in 16th place: see http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23662898
3 tough games in 8 days, no wonder the lads looked a bit jaded towards the end.
Great to have Arteta coming in to steady the ship.
The message to any other shit kicker teams who want to keep fouling us, go ahead – we are going to free kick goal you to death.
A fu€king great win.
UTA.
COYG
Just sit yourself down and just admirer
Can’t stop checking and staring at the log table, it’s been a while! 😀
Play Thomas V. Against WBH and rest Laurent K.
Squad for wba match probably should be
Viviano, jenk, vermalen, mert, nachos, arteta, rambo, gnabry, ryo, özil, giroud
Subs: akpom, gibbs, jack