English premier League: Queens Park Rangers 1-2 Arsenal
Coach Wenger reacts:
on what he said to the team at half-time…
I felt the first 25 minutes were very physical and they stopped us from playing. They had a direct game and for us it was important to put the ball on the ground and get good passes together and not only fight, but fight and play. In the second half we did that much better. We did fight and play and we always looked in control in the second half. They came back to 2-1 and then you never know, but it looked like we had a good game and kept them in the game at 2-0. We had a few more chances.
on Alexis Sanchez…
It’s good because when you don’t score for seven or eight games it is on your mind, even if you don’t say so. He took his chance well, he’s tricky, had a short back lift and scored a good goal.
on Alexis’ desire…
He never gives up and that’s the strength of a good striker as well. He’s resilient and I don’t know what happened before because it looked like, for someone who was desperate to score, he could have taken the chance and he waited for somebody. After that, the fact that he could still score shows that he has the mental strength to respond.
on Francis Coquelin…
He had an excellent game tonight and overall in midfield we had a very good game.
on Olivier Giroud responding to Monaco…
We were all down after the Monaco game and we responded well against Everton and again today. The confidence we got against Everton paid off tonight.
on building momentum…
It’s hot [in the top four] because everybody won tonight. We can only focus on our performances and keep going. We have 10 games to go, we play six at home and four away, so we just can focus on our performances.
on whether Arsenal have a better run-in than other top-four sides…
I don’t know, I haven’t studied everybody else. At the moment you fight all the teams who fight not to go down and fight all teams who want to be in Europe. In April some teams are settled and have nothing to go for, it can become a little bit easier. Fixtures that look difficult can become a little bit easier. It’s difficult to predict if it’s us or the other teams who have easier run-ins.
on why Arsenal did not click in the first half…
We were nervous. I felt that we were nervous and they put a shift in in the first half physically. They paid for that certainly in the second half. They stopped us from playing all over the pitch. Sandro played a big part in that and he had to come off after an hour – maybe it was easier for us to put the ball down and play after that.
on Gabriel…
It’s a hamstring. I don’t know, it’s bad enough to come off. It’s usually 21 days, not years!
on Giroud…
He’s strong mentally. He can take some criticism and respond. He’s shown that. I feel it was a bit harsh for him because he missed some chances. That can happen. Where we were guilty was to concede the goal.
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