Everton 2-2 Arsenal
Ramsey at the 83rd and Giroud’s goal at the 90th minute bring back an improbable point to London. Everton was leading 2-0 at half time.
Wenger Arsenal coach quotes:
on whether he could see the recovery coming…
You never know. I know that once we were 2-0 down it can go both ways, they can catch us on the counter attack because we have to come out and give absolutely everything but we gave a great response and a complete desire to come back. The spirit was fantastic and in the end we got back to 2-2. We got a strong point but a deserved one if you look at all the chances we had through the game. I think especially in the second half we had plenty of chances and we came back very late but our spirit maybe got us that point.
on the difference between the defeat in April and today…
When we got beaten 3-0 here it could have been many more. That was quite a flattering score on the day but today I believe we deserved the point we earned and for us to come back from 2-0 down against a team who is good on the counter attack shows that the belief and resilience is there. Having said that the second goal was offside and there was a foul before, just before half-time, so it was difficult to swallow. But we took it on the chin and came back in the way we did.
on Ramsey…
He has the engine and he gambles on getting in the box a lot and he has that timing to get where you need to be. He got rewarded like these kind of players do.
on Giroud…
I have more strikers than before so sometimes I can give them a little rest. Giroud has just played one game since the World Cup so I gave him a little breather today but I knew we were dominating the game in the second half and we needed some physical presence up front and he did that very well in the second half.
on looking more threatening with Giroud…
We looked much more dangerous because we were not in a counter-attacking situation. We were in a dominating situation where of course you play 10 against 10 in one half and his presence is very important.
on Alexis’ performance…
I wouldn’t like to go into any individual assessment. At the moment he is not completely ready physically but I don’t worry about him.
on what Alexis is missing…
At the moment he knows that he’s not at his best physically and once he’s at his best physically, the confidence will come back. It’s all linked together. It’s always difficult to know why the confidence is not at his best. I believe it’s mainly physical.
on the comeback showing title credentials…
It’s our ambition and we had a big test today. At half-time it was an even bigger test and we’ve responded well and if we can maintain [that spirit] then of course [we can be up there]. We have to maintain that consistency and the quality that we have shown in the second half. I think we were a bit nervous at the start and only started to play at 1-0 down. Before that we were a bit tentative but after that we slowly took over. Everton are a good side as well.
www.arsenal.com
