It was as much a relief for Arsenal fans as much as Arsene Wenger for the team to get back to winning ways after our defeat to Tottenham last week, especially as it came against our hated rival Jose Mourinho. But the fact is that if we want to keep our outside chance of still making the Top Four, then we simply had to win, and we did!
As Wenger said after the game: “It was important because we lost at Tottenham – that didn’t happen many times. Overall, you play Man United and it’s another big game. We couldn’t afford to lose today. In fact, we have recently won at Middlesbrough, we beat Manchester City in the semi-final of the cup, we won against Leicester and today. We had just one blip and I think it was a bit physical. But overall, we look a bit more stable.”
I am still a bit confused why our form dropped so much during February and March considering that we went 20 games unbeaten earlier in the season, but you could see at the beginning of the match we were looking a little nervous. Wenger admitted that the plan was to try and absorb the pressure in the first half. “We needed to be patient.” he said. ”
“I felt that going in at half-time at 0-0 we would have a good chance to win the game. We started a bit nervously, a bit under pressure. Slowly I think we became better and in the second half we controlled the game quite well. The first goal was a bit lucky, the second goal was a great goal. I’m happy for Danny as well. When you play centre forward you know you want goals and so it hopefully gives him confidence.”
Wenger also admitted that he picked Welbeck to start because of his great record against his old side Man United, and even that worked as well! All in all, it was a great day and a great win.
And our hope of getting the Wenger Trophy is still alive, as well as the FA Cup…
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