Friday, November 5, 2010

Wenger's reaction to the Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 Arsenal match

On Arsenal’s first defeat in this season’s Champions League…
"Congratulations to Donetsk, they played well and won the game. We had a good start but after we lost our urgency and let Donetsk come into the game too much. We lost concentration in the duels and you could see what was coming towards half time."

On what went wrong for his side…
"I felt we moved out of the game altogether and moved into the game altogether so it was more of a team problem, a kind of complacency problem more than an individual problem. In the second half we came back into the game and gave a lot so you can't fault the team. We were a bit unlucky. We have learnt the lesson that at this level you can't lose focus at any moment and that is why we were punished."

On the inclusion of a young Craig Eastmond…
"You are always concerned about that but it was more a team focus problem than suffering in the centre of midfield. We were suffering too on all the duals at the back."

On his thoughts on Group H after tonight…
"We want to win our next game but we are still in a strong position."

On Robin van Persie’s fitness…
"He has not played with us, not trained and I am quite surprise that he was named [in the Dutch squad]."

On Eduardo’s goal…
"I don't take much pleasure form seeing him score in this particular game but it’s good to see him playing at that level and overall he had a very good game."

On balancing the Champions League with the Premier League…
“At the moment we are not in a position where we can choose - we have to fight. We have a difficult league game on Sunday against Newcastle. We will win what we can and not choose too much."

On whether Shakhtar were lucky…
"Maybe yes. Let’s hope we don't meet them again."

Source: Arsenal.com on 3 Nov 10

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