Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham
Down 1-0 after 10 mins of play, Arsenal came from behind in a big scoring spree.
on the performance…
Tottenham had a good start, we were a bit nervous and scored one goal when we made an adjustment mistake at the back, and a chance for a second goal. It looked like last season’s game, but then there was the turning point with the sending off of Adebayor.
on the red card…
It certainly changed the game because Adebayor had a good start, he was lively. What I made of it was: it was not rose, it was not yellow, it was a red. I didn’t think at all when he was sent off that the game was won.
on Arsenal’s strong response…
We came back into the game and got what we wanted, which was to win the game. It is not always easy against 10 – we have won games with 10 men. I thought it could become even more difficult because they could have dropped back and waited for us, but we had the quality and movement to play through their lines and create chances. There were some outstanding individual offensive performances. In the second half you could see that the confidence was not completely still there, I hope that this result will help us.
on Adebayor…
He controlled his reaction, sometimes players have this kind of reaction on a pitch when they are frustrated. That was not the case with him, I thought he was flying and had a great start. I watched him last week when Spurs were at City, and honestly he had an outstanding game. The more clubs he has, the more he is outstanding because he plays against his former teams!
on Villas-Boas’ claims of dominance…
If our opponents are in control from the first to the last minutes and we win 5-2, then I don’t mind too much.
on similarities to last season’s 5-2…
It is earlier in the season and I felt that with the two results we had against Schalke and against Man United, our confidence level dropped tremendously. And because we are a team who likes to go forward, when the confidence drops, your game suffers straight away. It was important for us to get back into some positive results, to get back to our level. This team has something special – they want to do well and they have quality. We have to find stability in our expression and we need some more time to work on that, but there’s something special in the team. As you all wrote many times in the newspapers, we are off the top and so we have not much time to improve.
on the team getting nervy at 4-2…
That shows you that at the moment this team is looking for reassurance with a good result.
on Walcott’s performance…
I believe he is doing very well. I haven’t changed my mind on him. I always said I want to keep him and we [will] try to find an agreement. We haven’t found it yet but we’ll continue. He doesn’t play like somebody who wants to go and I don’t behave like somebody who wants him to go, because he plays.
on Walcott and Giroud’s understanding…
Giroud has a presence in front of goal. He is a typical centre forward. He has a presence in the box, so you’re more encouraged to cross the ball.
on Cazorla and Wilshere’s performances…
Cazorla was outstanding. It shows you the best training is to travel to Panama and come back!
on Hugo Lloris’ performance…
I think he played well. Honestly, he saved a few. He always came out in a decisive and accurate way, and was very quick and strong. You cannot fault him on any goal. He was a bit unlucky, especially on the Podolski goal. Who would have stopped that? I don’t see him guilty on any goal.
