Arsene Wenger says he was pleased with Arsenal’s resilience as they secured an important three points with a 3-2 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
After Andros Townsend cancelled out Shkodran Mustafi’s first half opener, Alexis Sanchez came to the fore with a killer brace. A late header by James Tomkins rattled the nerves of the Gunners but they held out to close the gap on the top four to one point.
Here’s what Arsene Wenger had to say about the performance when quizzed by Sky Sports.
On the win…
Overall it was in a convincing way, even though in the second half it was more difficult. In the first half, we couldn’t take advantage of the chances we created. In the second half we were challenged because they came back to 1-1 but we found the resources to score two great goals. From then on, they never gave up. When you looked at their [Palace’s] results they make many results in the final ten minutes since the start of the season. That’s why we were a bit on edge at the end.
On the points meaning more after a tight game…
You want to win the game, no matter how much you suffer in the end. We did that and that was important tonight.
On whether he’s changed his mind about preferring a back four…
No, I say we are adaptable as we play both systems. In some games we play three, in most games we’ll play four.
On whether he’s fearful of losing Alexis Sanchez in January…
No, I’m not fearful. As you said, that will be a subject that comes up because of his contractual situation. I’ve said that [I’d like to keep him] many times since the start of the season. I can only repeat what I’ve said until now.
On Arsenal’s players not celebrating with Sanchez…
No, I didn’t see that.
On Wilshere coming back to his best…
He has shown that recently and he’s shown that again tonight. He’s played a very good game, he gave the ball to Sanchez to score as well. Overall, he was very good tonight, yes.
On Arsenal regaining their composure after stuttering in the second half…
Yes, we kept our composure. It’s a difficult game for everybody in the league, to go home with the three points you need to suffer a little bit…that’s for sure and that’s what we did. For the biggest part of the game I felt we played well.
“On Arsenal’s players not celebrating with Sanchez…”
was this question posed indeed? did i miss something?
seriously, this appears to be a blatant attempt to sow discord among our players and it is deplorable
Reporter must have eyes up his own arse.
He didn’t see other players celebrating with Alexis? Alexis was practically pulling everyone in to celebrate.:D
Next he will tell you Ozil was wearing a red undershirt.
Sky showed two groups of players celebrating & players not joining Alexis to celebrate even though he gestured to them to come & join him. I think it’s quite evident that there are divisions in the dressing room, there have been various stories over the last year & Arsene isn’t going to admit it publicly. On Alexis, I think we should sell. As great as he is it’s quite evident that he isn’t going to sign a new deal & we have to sell for as much as we can and get reinforcements. One player isn’t going to replace him… Read more »
I’m sure Alexis can be a pain to get on with as a teammate, but the guys who weren’t celebrating with Alexis were also celebrating the goal. They were just doing it with Jack over the pass. Happens all the time.
You have the wrong goal celebration. It was the second goal that half team did not celebrate with Sanchez. 21 people thumb you up for making totally false statement ?
Pharbo, you are on to a winner, you are still getting thumbed up and you are talking about wrong goal celebration. Very impressive. Have you thought about going into politics.
Agreed. If you hate the guy why would you even celebrate when he scores?
On he’s zipper (aka our entire defence) not really working again…
No, I didn’t see that.
Why can’t your team defend?
If it was tastefully done and within the values that you hold so dear would you consider once, twice maybe, doing some work defensively on the training ground?
A good performance but still so poor defensively. Except for Mustafi who I thought was very good even not counting the goal. I don’t know what’s wrong with Bellerin. He doesn’t seem to trust his own pace any more. When he has space on the right he never runs into it. A player like him should be abusing Jeffrey Schlupp or at least giving him a hard time. Lacazette deserved to stay on and try to get his goal. You could see how disappointed he was to come off. He fought hard the whole game and made the layoff unselfishly… Read more »
Surely Aguero for Sanchez is a no brainer?
Will never happen
I hate Arsene Wenger, but celebrate every goal we score. I certainly wouldn’t celebrate with him if I wasn’t on the bench!!!
I Hate Arsene Wenger but celebrate every Arsenal Goal I wouldn’t celebrate with him even if I was sitting next to him on the bench.
Grow up, cunto.
Maybe post that one more time
Bloggs I was merely questioning Gooner-IL’s reasons for hating Arsene Wenger…my post was zapped and his is duplicated in all its hate-filled technicolor …I appreciate this is your blog and you decide what’s what but this strikes me as OTT…Are you engaging in some old-fashioned click-bait? Shock Horror! Presumed Gooner states not once but twice that he hates Wenger…
No idea what you mean
Never mind…my comment querying his hate towards Wenger was first moderated then zapped…this dick’s post is duplicated in all it’s hate-filled shit…if you have any control over this then shame on you and I won’t trouble your blog again…