Arsenal show title credentials after fourth straight win
 A great lift: A delighted Denilson is carried by team-mate Bacary Sagna after scoring the third goal in the 3-1 win over Bolton at The Reebok Stadium on Saturday. — AP
BOLTON: Arsene Wenger believes his Arsenal side are producing performances that will see them launch a sustained challenge for the Premier League title.
The Gunners made it four consecutive wins in the Premier League with a 3-1 victory at Bolton.
The likes of Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Denilson, Alexandre Song, Gael Clichy and Nicklas Bendtner have amassed plenty of Premier League experience despite their relative youth.
Without a Premier League title since 2004, Wenger feels that his youthful squad are maturing to the extent that they could push the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United all the way.
He said: “You can always get better and that’s a good positive thing. We want to improve as long as the attitude is right and we believe that the attitude is right.
“There’s strength, security and great authority coming out of our team and that’s what I like very much.
“We’re not panicking if we go behind and responding in a very strong way for such a young team.
“We have a very strong desire not to accept defeat to go with real quality.
“I felt we were very close last year because we were four points behind Manchester United at the end of the season. Let’s go from game to game and show the quality. The desire is there and I believe in the quality of my team.”
Wenger also believes that his squad has the necessary depth to still be in contention in May.
He continued: “We won at Bolton without players like Robin Van Persie, (Tomas) Rosicky, (Mikael) Silvestre, Eduardo so there was a lot of quality at home.”
Wenger was waiting to learn the extent of a shin injury suffered by his left-back Clichy.
The French defender was injured in a challenge with Kevin Davies at the Reebok Stadium and was taken to hospital for X-rays.
Wenger added: “It’s a question of days if it isn’t broken but obviously if it is broken then it’s a different prospect.”
Davies gave Bolton the lead after less than a quarter of an hour on Saturday.
But Emmanuel Eboue and Bendtner cancelled that out with two goals in the space of a minute and Denilson added a third in the closing stages.
Bolton have won just once in their opening six games in all competitions but manager Gary Megson is optimistic about his team’s prospects.
He said: “A lot of people played their best football of the season against Arsenal.
“I’m delighted for Kevin Davies and he’s set off the season remarkably well and he’s got three goals in five games.
“We’ve got to add to our game but I’m hoping now that everybody has got the sense to see what we need to do to get the points we require and the kind of football that we want to play.
“We’ve got to get that little bit of quality so that when we get the op por tunities, we score rather than coming up with hard-luck stories. |
發表於 2008-9-22 07:49 PM
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