Nacho Monreal has had his praises sung by Arsene Wenger following his impressive display for Arsenal in their win over Chelsea.
The Gunners earned a 2-1 win over the Blues at the Emirates on Wednesday night, but it was far from plain sailing on the way to victory.
The away team started the match in emphatic fashion, and our defence was severely under pressure from wave after wave of attack, and the visitors managed to get the ball in the back of the net twice within the opening 10 minutes, although luckily for our boys, the first was rightly ruled out for offside.
Our defence managed to settle themselves and manage the relentless comings from our rivals, and Chelsea failed to seriously challenge David Ospina throughout the match.
Arsene Wenger has moved to throw a barrage of praise on Nacho Monreal, who has been one of our best and most consistent players throughout the campaign, as well as last night.
“For me he gets very much credit, but maybe there’s a bit less focus on him because he’s not a candidate for the English national team, he doesn’t make many statements or is maybe not a lot on social networks,” Wenger told a news conference.
“But our job is about performances. I like the word ‘silent leaders.’ That means people come, they perform, they don’t talk, they go home, and they come in the next morning, they train well, and the next day they do it again.
“They are the real leaders in the teams.”
Wenger admits enjoying last night’s result, and even insisted that his side enjoyed the newfound freedom from uncertainty following Alexis Sanchez’s exit.
“It’s a great satisfying night for us because we managed to beat a strong team. I felt that in January we paid a heavy price for the uncertainty that was existing in our dressing room,” Wenger said.
“Now we are back with more clarity, we know what we have to do, we can focus on our game.”
Did Monreal deserve to be singled out for praise? Has he been our most consistent player this season?
Pat J