Wenger: 'It was important we didn't lose our heads' - 21 Oct 2007
On other sporting events...
"You will have to give me time to go home, change and put my England shirt on... [laughter] to get in front of my television! "
On the away side...
"They upset us in previous years and I thought they were very resilient today, of course they have a lot of tricks as well because Campo, Nolan and McCann, they have gone through a lot, you know? They know how to slow the game down, they know when to make the foul, they know how to pull the shirt and they are good players. So, it was not easy not to get upset and keep our nerves."
On the impact of his subs...
"Yes, but we had a strong bench and I feel that the players before did the job, it's always difficult to measure what kind of work the player who came off before did, you know. They were already tired but of course the injection of creativity and pace of Walcott and Rosicky helped after that."
On Walcott pushing for a start...
"You are right, he will get that, don't worry. It is just that now that you feel he has come back with his shoulder problem, he has found really the injection of pace he had before, his co-ordination is better, he uses his body better - his shoulders. Today, when you see what he's brought, when he came on, you think 'that's certainly a promising striker'."
On maturity...
"We have a good momentum now, and I liked today that the team built the success with patience, with quite a high tempo, and as well with mastering our nerves, you know? At some stage of the game it was becoming hectic, and it was important that we didn't lose our heads. We kept calm and play like we want to play football, and we did that well and for me that was a good sign of maturity today."
On Hleb's tactical role...
"In the second half today I used Hleb in the middle because there was so little space and he's the one who can. I wanted us to go through the flanks but first to attack them through the middle, and he can get the ball out of a very small space and play it through to the flanks, and we took advantage of that." |