Arsenal 2-2 Swansea
Coach Wenger reacts:
on the game…
The result is very disappointing but the spirit we put in and the effort we put in was great and we have to take it on the chin. We made the most difficult [part] by coming back to 2-1 and after that you could see that maybe we were too focused to keep the result and maybe too conservative because of confidence level had been affected certainly by Saturday. We just wanted to win the game without pushing anymore forward and a mistake happened unfortunately and it created a result we didn’t want. But overall I have to give credit to the fighting spirit and the desire we put into that game.
on Swansea’s second goal…
Yes. I think it was a foul for us. I don’t understand this decision but it doesn’t mean we have to concede a goal behind that. But at the moment this kind of decisions don’t go for us but we still could have stopped the goal from happening.
on when the referee blew up…
I was unhappy as well. For me it was no goal. I think Thomas Vermaelen could have got the ball. You watch it again you will see that Thomas Vermaelen had a very good chance to get the ball. When the final whistle happened.
on De Guzman going clean through…
Yeah but the ball went wide and Vermaelen was coming back.
on Saturday’s result affecting the players…
It affects us a lot because it’s of course a big disappointment. But we want to go back to focus on the next game and this result tonight hurts us a lot. Sometimes when you lose big like we did at Chelsea, the next game most of the time you get a draw. The way it happened of course is more frustrating because we were 2-1 up with two minutes to go and at home we have been quite solid but I think we made a mistake on the second goal and it was not needed.
on the team’s title chances…
I think at the moment it is not the biggest worry we have. We have to be realistic a little bout and try to come back a bit in the next game. We have to look behind us and of course try to look in front of us.
n securing a top-four place…
Everton won, so we have to focus and prepare well for the next game. It will be open until the end but you can still have surprises as well. Man City had a good result tonight, they look a bit unstoppable. They are favourites as they have two games in hand, them and Chelsea are favourites now for the title. We have not too much room to come back into it, but we have to get some players back. It is difficult to fight with half the team out.
on restoring some belief…
We have to do as well as we can and accept our position at the end of the season. But at the moment [our focus] is to recover from a high disappointment and recover for the next game. It is a huge game.
on Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere and Koscielny…
None of them are close to coming back. Koscielny is out for a while. After that Ozil, I don’t know but at least two or three weeks. Ramsey is perhaps the closest. He is two weeks maybe.
on believing in the team…
We live at the moment in a permanent assessment from everybody and definite judgement always. We have to let people judge, assess and criticise – we find plenty of people who can do that, I do not worry about that too much. I just do my job and focus on the next game, and I will let people assess and judge. They know much better than I do, so I will leave them the job.
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