Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal simplified their game to beat Everton after losing focus in their midweek defeat against Champions League opponents Monaco.
Olivier Giroud bounced back from his poor performance on Wednesday to break the deadlock on 39 minutes and substitute Tomas Rosicky secured victory with a deflected strike in the final minute of normal time.
The win, which sees Arsenal return to third spot in the Premier League table, means Arsene Wenger’s side have won six out of the last seven league games since the New Year’s Day defeat to Southampton.
Speaking to the press post-game, Wenger reflected: “What was very important today was that we had a mentally united response and we showed that. We are proud of the response that we showed today. Our defensive concentration was at a much higher level than on Wednesday night.
“We know that we can do better with the ball but overall what was important for us was to respond with a win. We got it and not everybody can produce that after such a disappointment. It was vital for us, for the rest of the season, to win the game today.”
He added: “I believe that we wanted to make the difference too much in the first game [against Monaco] and forgot our basics to defend as a unit. Today we came back to our basics and that was very important to find our confidence back.”
Wenger reserved special praise for Giroud whose tidy finish from a Mesut Ozil corner settled Arsenal’s nerves six minutes before the break.
“Olivier’s great quality is when his back’s to the wall – he has the personality and the character to respond. Because I know him better now, that’s one of the reasons why I kept him in the team. He acknowledged that he missed his game and he will respond because he has the strength to do it.
“It was a great goal. He responded very well and I’m not happy only because he scored a goal but also because of the workrate he put in today from the first to the last minute.
“When a guy misses [chances in] one game, straight away to take him out [would be harsh] and I thought his presence would be important against Everton.”
2nd place time.
I know it’s tempting to get overexcited, and trust me I am, but we are closer to 5th (3 points) than to 2nd (4 points), and with all teams hitting some serious form, this could be a serious banana peel if we don’t focus
We are on 51 pts with 11 matches to go. 8 wins (or 7 wins, 3 draws and a loss, etc.) gets us to 75 points which should be enough for top 4 and likely top 3. That means if we take care of business in the matches that we will be clearly favored to win in (Away to QPR, Home to WH, Away to Newcastle, Away to Burnley, Home to Sunderland, Away to Hull, Home to Swansea and Home to WBA) we’ll be in great shape to fight for the top 3. That leaves the three toughest matches (Home… Read more »
It’ll be interesting to see whether we respect ourselves enough to take a points advantage into a game against Liverpool or United and play for a draw.
And by interesting, I mean a soul-crushingly Groundhog Day-esque replication of Russian Roulette on a football pitch.
Game for game (ie, comparing results with those against the same opponents) we’re currently still 2 points worse off than last season (though we’re actually 8 points behind where we were after 27 games, since we had a tougher run-in last season). If we can beat Swansea at home (good chance?) or Chelsea (doable) we’ll make make up that 2 points (they both drew at the Emirates last year). It would be good to get a draw or better yet a win at Old Trafford (we lost there last year). We need to win the rest to match the results… Read more »
Too true. Less possession for us means we have more chance to catch them at the back as there is more space there. Let’s keep that going.
Look, we were little bit uncomfortable when they attacked, especially when the Coq was bloodied by Olivier. OVerall I would say it was a good win and 4 points behind the 2nd place is little bit close to where we want ro be.
Chuffed for the big, handsome bastard. Now if we could maybe find whatever fountain of youth Rosicky has access to we could keep his progression going for another couple of years.
3 points was vital! Hope Sanchez is rested against qpr. Cazorla could do with a rest too he’s started every game for last few months and always runs his little legs into the ground. He’s probably too important to rest but we can’t afford for him to get injured! Anyway coyg!
When has the manager ever rested one of our core players for a league game or any other meaningful game, and why would you think he will start now
wonder why seoighe got thumbed down, we’ve all complained here about the lack of rotation and how it might contribute to fatigue and muscular injuries. Problem right now is, there is no midfielder to replace Cazorla in that position, where he is also kind of out of position in the first place. Maybe coquelin and flamini for Man U, but we will be killing our passing fluency (which is anyway rather weak right now). Plus, with the “philosophy” of the dutch fuck coaching there, its more a case of keeping defensive shape when their snoozefest speed picks up once in… Read more »
Did we not just rest mertesacker
“rest”..hopefully a good long rest
Id go for qpr
Welbeck
Ox ozil Walcott
Jack(?) rosicky
Monreal Gabriel Kos bellerin
Ospina
Yes rob..lets get Wilshere in asap..he must be dying to play……
Kind of down to bear bones at cm who else is fit..
Unless we go chambers cdm
Can’t imagine we’ll play Coquelin with that broken nose
So so happy about this win. We are going to need Santi and Alexis at their best for the very difficult matches at the end of the season (LFC CFC); they need to be rested now — and I’d even argue for resting them at Monaco.
Hope you’ve not given up on the Monaco game. It’s difficult but not impossible to come back.
Yeah, seriously.
They got three when no one expected them to (least of all themselves) so the idea of writing off the away leg is incredibly stupid.
Even if we win by 2 but play a fluent creative game, then go out, its still better for the ‘psyche’.
Playing a weakend team to cede defeat just breeds more negativity.
Agreed. Scoring 3 goals may be tough, but it’s far from impossible. And it doesn’t need to be 3-0 either, 3-1 and extra time will do us fine, so it’s not even all over if they score.
Hang on, after the last two games, does this mean that we’re ‘Wenger out’ or ‘Wenger in’ this week? I can’t keep up anymore.
Wenger is a decent manager. Over the last decade we have always bottled it against big teams and in tournaments and Wenger’s persistent bragging about consistently getting 4th place and qualifying leads many to believe that is all he can give us.
For me, it has to be Wenger Out with conditions. Condition 1 – We get the right replacement – no point in replacing with a similar manager or one of similar ability. It has to be someone who is a born winner. Condition 2 – It has to be about the long term, no point in getting a Guardiola who will only stick around for 3 or 4 years then go on a hiatus.
Oh, those people who live in a perfect world. (a) There has to be a manager out there who’ll do better than Wenger. (Difficult.) (b) The board has to find him and convince him to come to the club. (That’s our board.) (c) He can’t afford a slow start to the season. (d) He can’t afford to not get into the top four in his first season. (e) He can’t afford to tinker with systems that fail to impress. (f) He can’t afford an 8-2 or 6-0 or 6-3 or even a 4-4. All the while coming to grips with… Read more »
So we rather stick with someone knowing we will get top four and that’s all we hope for rather than actually have the ambition to win the league. Mourinho in his first session back almost won the league with a poor team. He is on his way to win the league in his second season. Wenger has built two or three teams since he last won the title. So you would not take someone like Mourinho shows you love the manager over the club. I want my team to win things. Wenger will not deliver that. That’s the reality. He… Read more »
1. No. It’s not only about top 4. 2. Wenger has as much ambition as anyone. 3. Mourinho has never had a poor team. 4. I’m prouder of my manager and my team over Mourinho and his any day. 5. Wenger has won things. He will win things. 6. Real football isn’t the same as playing it on an Xbox. 7. Everyone learns from their mistakes. 8. Given the list of potential managers you’ve listed you obviously get your inspiration from the consensus narratives made available to you via a very timid and blinkered media. Arsenal can do better than… Read more »
I dont know what you are, but those who previously were Wenger out is probably still Wenger out, while Wenger in is probably still Wenger in. However, Wenger seem to be developing his tactics of late, starting with the City game where he applied tactics to win the game rather than entertain. And that is what Wenger out has been asking for for years, so if he can continue his tactical revolution and continue to adjust his tactics to the opposition instead of playing the suicidal “Arsenal Way” every game regardless of opposition, then im sure more and more Wenger… Read more »
I’m ‘Wenger will be in for as long as he’s in until he’s no longer in, in which case he’ll be out, and someone else will be in until they’re out too and someone else is in.’ I’m just in it for the ride these days, I don’t have the energy to get too worked up. I’ll always admire and respect Arsene. He’s a gentleman, and that’s rare inside football and out, although sometimes he can be utterly infuriating. I do find the knee jerk reactions funny, though, as well as the fanatics on both ends of the spectrum. Completely… Read more »
The problem is old habits die hard. You saw something special against City and the fact we were able to pull it off was all the more infuriating. Why couldn’t this have been the approach from the start of the season? Why was this not the approach in the second half of last season? All the hard work goes down the toilet against, let’s be honest, the best chance we have had in years to progress to the quarters of the CL.
Wenger has consistently delivered what you would expect Arsenal to deliver on the basis of our financial position compared to the other teams in the league. Currently, there are two billionaires teams, and one team with higher commercial value. So the fact that we never finish below fourth is definitely an accomplishment, as no other team never finish below their ‘financial position’. The CL is much more luck based, but also consistently contains 5 or 6 teams with more financial power than we have. Lately, we’ve mostly been going out to bigger teams, although that has been largely due to… Read more »
I’m loving the fact that we are a threat from corners for the first time in years.
Coquelin makes me bloody proud. Plays on with a broken nose charging around the pitch. We need that fire from more of our players in the big games!
If santi is out Young Tommy would do..And bring Feo on for Alexis..
A great populist game and spirit… playing on with broken nose… gotta love that! Ospina was better than people generally thought he could be (I thought Neuer too!). Gabriel was the welcome surprise: after the mistake he looked like a really strong direct defender. Long may that continue… Gird scoring from Ozil with Santi being man-o-the-match: what the doctor ordered!
Good victory today. At stages in the game we looked awful. But we got the job done. We are not in great form but hopefully we can keep collecting those three points. Still cant get over what happened against Monaco, but hopefully the lads can, we have nothing to loose going there now. Going to be a fight to finish in top 4 if we keep playing the way we are. For Manure and Liverpool are picking up form! Even them Spudwa*ks. Also, really annoying seeing Fabregas winning another trophy today. And hugging that cu*t Terry! And to think he… Read more »
Personally, I am a little old fashioned in the sense I still believe a player should represent the values of the club. For one, I dreaded the possibility of Suarez ever coming here.
As for Costa, just go watch some of the truly disgusting crap he pulled at Atletico. He deserves to wear a Chelsea shirt, but certainly not an Arsenal one.
Because we dont take traitors back. And this is not FM 2015 we have limited amount to spend and we have priorities. Who would you prefer to have instead of Sanchez?
Our spending with recent aquisition of Gabriel reached 100 mil. Is that not enough?
Fabregas walked away from us when we needed him most. He behaved extremely unprofessionally, and although he’s viewed through rose tinted spectacles by a large number of gooners (I can’t for the life of me work out why), he should be shunned and viewed as the traitor that he is. He’s taken the Devil’s shilling by going to that abomination of a football club, and he’s not coming back. Let’s look to the future.
Actually, many of the good players that walked away from us either went on to do absolutely nothing, or to pick up trophies without actually playing much. Hleb, Song, Sagna, to name a few. Flamini never really starred at Milan either. Adebayor and van Persie both had one great season in Manchester and then started fading into obscurity. And even Fabregas was never very important to Barca.
Gabriel was solid at the back and brought greater solidity than Mertesacker would have. man, did anyone see that last ditch tackle from him when lukaku was through on goal. that was master class.
Good response and attitude from him and his team today.
Apologies for going off-topic but anyone still interested in Podolski’s progress at Inter should heed Mancini’s words after he started in today’s loss at home to Fiorentina – “Lukas needs to do more. This is clearly not enough. We know he can give a lot more and we hope he will.” Spooky.
The classic back to basics comment from Wenger. But you can tell some players are running on empty right now. Sanchez has been poor last two games, passing all over the place, poor touches. You can’t blame him either, he has worked hard for the team constantly. But it looks to me that Wenger is way to afraid to rest some players right now. During the game against Monaco you could tell the BFG was running on empty. I know Arsenal should be pushing for the title, and a solid run in the Champions League, but right now I am… Read more »
Also, is it just me, or did the team on the whole look better once Rosicky was on the pitch? Such an underrated player.
It was an average performance against a very average Everton side. The good thing was that we ground out a win and kept a clean sheet. The bad thing was that yet again Giroud demonstrated that he is not a world-class striker, and that we’ll never win the title until we get one. But we got three points so I suppose Wenger is God again. I can’t wait for this boring, predictable season to end. Shit League Cup Final, wasn’t it? Two lucky deflected goals and the Chavs beat a tired-looking Spuds side. I didn’t care who won but I… Read more »
Let’s scrape top four….then sell Ozil. What a pile of shit.
blood out of arse kind of comment. I hope your pain eases with a painless shit.
Ha! I was actually taking a shit when I read your kind comment….
Can any one justify Ozil is playing like a 42 million player…if so you are saying he is playing better than Alexis ?
We need him to lift the team when it needs him…everybody shines when things go well.
I’m sick of all the Ozil bashing….
I still really think rosicky is being under utilised at the moment. The guys pressing game sets the precident for the whole team. Give the guy the minutes he deserves
Did anyone catch Podolski’s “corner” over the weekend? It went about 10 feet.
What’s wenger got against Walcott ? Why’s he not playing?
agree with everybody…wenger underrates rosicky massively, he doesn’t play him because he’s “old” and thinks younger better players should get development time but they’ve done fuck all for us this season and make no mistake…giroud missed 2 sitters this game…if he didn’t score that goal…he would’ve been crucified… Ospina MOTM performance for me…looks like sceszny won’t sniff playing time