Arsene Wenger has admitted his team were nervous yesterday as they got their first Premier League win since October, but says the three points should help restore some belief ahead of Wednesday’s crucial Champions League tie with Olympiacos.
Goals from Joel Campbell, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey helped secure victory, but Arsenal had Petr Cech and some poor Sunderland finishing to thank too.
Afterwards, the manager said that recent iffy form had been a factor, along with the amount of changes to the side enforced by injury.
“It was our first game without the injured players and we absolutely had to win,” he said.
“We played against a difficult team who were well organised and good on the break, so all the ingredients were there for a disappointing result. Because we hadn’t won for three games people would have said we were in a crisis, so it was important to get the win.
“We were a bit edgy, a bit nervous, in the first half but in the second half we played with more freedom, fluency and incisiveness which is how we won the game. It was a tough one and if you look at the results in the Premier League it was like that.”
And the Frenchman was taking the positives ahead of European action this week.
“It’s been a good day for us, because we have won the game and that makes helps us prepare for Olympiacos,” he said.
“Secondly it puts us in an interesting position again and that’s all positive. The squad that was out there for Sunderland – the good news is that we won and that we don’t have any injuries.”
That picture hahaha. Not quite as good as the beach volleyball one but still great. Gotta love Arsene
Just watched the highlights again and we had quite a lot of chances against us, I’m sure due to having Ramsey/Flamini/Ox/Campbell as a ‘new’ midfield getting used to each other, plus Sunderland are picking up under big Sam.
Not very optimistic vs Olympiakos (if we allow them the same chances as Sunderland had, and at their home they will score and we will need three) but Ramsey is better settled in the centre now, Campbell has picked up and Ozil is a genius. COYR.
Will be tough for sure. With Ramsey and Flamini in the middle our defence will start to look dodgy again I’m sure. There’s not much protection. The coq remained disciplined most of the time and santi was never charging forward as much as Ramsey does and will. We got away with it yesterday. I think we will get a result on Wednesday. Coyg
Walcott has to start in Greece
And not forgeting that Maureen’s words have started haunting him.
SPECIALIST in what?
Maureen can be “special” in the championship next year.
Specialist in learning that Karma is indeed a bloody bitch. Up yours Maureen
Win one win in the PL in August, one in September, one in October and one in November he is the consistent one.
Like Ozil said.
Score first and early, quiet the home fans.
Don’t Implode
Win
I have a “friend” and by that I mean ex boss. Who is from Bournemouth but for the past 5 years i’ve known him supports Chelsea. He was at the game as a Bournemouth fan yesterday and was going apeshit about the 1-0 to Bournemouth. Typical Chelsea fan, switch teams as and when it fucking suits. My god I hate those cunts.
Europa doesn’t necessarily mean our title chances are diminished. We could use that competition to help the youngsters gain some experience and keep our bench sharp. If we manage things well, we can use it as an opportunity. Think of it as the capital one cup of Europe.
Except it’s on Thursday.
Would love to win in Greece and qualify, but won’t feel bad if we fall short. The only issue for me is that Europa awaits if we fail.
The league title is possible especially with our only barrier (City) looking suspect, I want us to go all out for it.
If we win at Villa, the game against City will be key; beat them, and there is a minimum of 4 point gap. The BPL is it for me.
you are forgetting Leicester are above us and playing well so minimum 4 point gap is optimistic, unless you are talking exclusively about City… also why is it now suddenly the BPL, i don’t like.
Barclays, waste of a letter as PL means the same when we are talking Arsenal. Similarly EPL.
We do have previous for winning by two goals away from home when we need to.
Just ask Steve Mcmahon…”One minute John Barnes, one minute” haha!
Not sure why the media said we ‘flattered to deceive’. Not the most fluent performance understandably so with changes and patches where we rode our luck. But we bossed most of the game, scored the goal for them and created enough chances, took 3 of them well and frankly put this one to bed even with supposedly the worse DM in the world Flamini who compleyed 104 of 108 passes and no “world Class Striker”. We even equaled City’s Goal Difference without spending on an out field player in the transfer window (sorry I should say fail to add) Meanwhile… Read more »
Don’t get your hopes up for Greece.
We have a chance and if we apply ourselves well, we can defintely score.
But we will have to be extremely discipline at the back.
That said, this team always seems to have to do things the hard way. They tend to always find a way with backs against the wall and botch it up when it turns routine.
Lets hope they (are made to) feel the pressure.
I don’t get the nonsense from the media that if we win the title this season its because the other teams have been weak. So last season, Chelsea did not benefit from a transitional United, Arsenal coking up our first part of season and City being sporadic? The reason why its unpredictable this season is because the “lesser” teams have better TV money share and have become more competitive. Look at Stoke. This isn’t Pubis anymore, they now field Shaqiri-Affelay-Borjan The reason why the media are so apologetic about the season is because they predicted Arsenal will struggle because we… Read more »
Campbell.
He can put them away, he is dilgent and uses the ball well, protects the ball.
As I mentioned many times, there is a reason Wenger has players around 23/24yrs. Its the age they either translate their potential or not.
Ramsey, Walcott, Nasri, Fabregas, Coquelin all did it.
Welbeck, Ox and Campbell can too.
Why people keep minimizing Campbell’s prospects is beyond me. He can and will get better.
If Sunderland could open up numerous times at home and create 2-3 clear cut chances, you’ll forgive me for not feeling all that confident away against the Greeks.
I think our best chance is to go hell for leather – accept the fact that with Flamsey we’re going to concede a few and hope Cech saves our bacon. Hopefully Ozil and co. will score more than we let in.
Are Olympiakos really a better team than Sunderland though? They aren’t in terms of money available or individual player quality. If they played each other Olympiakos would probably win due to their vastly greater European experience, but as an opponent to play against for us I doubt they’re much tougher.
Flamini did well to snuff out the threat and it led to Ramsey’s goal eventually. He kept the ball moving well and protected the back. Unless you listen to 7amkickoff, you won’t realise that he made 104 out of 108 pass completion because such is statistics. Both Ramsey and Flamini did well considering this was a first full match together. In fact, the fullbacks in Bellerin and Monreal were at fault for dodgy moments so not sure why some continue to have an agenda against Flamini. Naturally the team would be affected by injuries and changes. Again, Campbell did very… Read more »
Good points and all but really if we are to harbour Champion League ambitions is Flamsey really the midfield combo that you want to take to on a warm and breezy Wednesday night at the Camp Nou when injuries hit? Understand that it’s a little unrealistic to expect two world class players for every position but our current DM back up consists of two 30+ fading players along with an untested 21 year old… Full respect for Wenger in nurturing young players and keeping the faith but every season it seems the consensus is that if we only had an… Read more »
Schneiderlin’s out injured right now, so yeah, I guess he’d fit right in.