Sunday, July 31, 2011

Wenger's reaction to the Arsenal 2-2 Boca Juniors match

on letting in two second-half goals...
You never want to concede goals, but overall I do not give too much importance to that. What is important for us it to find a collective rhythm. When we could we managed to play at a good pace for 60 minutes, after it was much more difficult. It was expected, we came back from a training camp in Germany with heavy work and I knew that the second half would be much more difficult.

Boca Juniors are a good team and we got caught counter-attacking when were 2-0 up and we tried to build up the game, but when you are tired you miss some passes and were a bit more under threat.

on the lessons he has learned...
That we can score goals and Gervinho is a good addition to our squad. He is very interesting because he gives us options on both sides and through the middle. He can integrate well with our team. Also we have some improvements to make in some areas, especially the way we win the ball back. On set pieces we were not convincing today, but overall it was quite positive.

on Gervinho...
We can be extremely dangerous on the counter-attack with the players we have, we have Walcott who was not involved today, we have Gervinho and with the midfield we have I believe we can be very quick in the transition to go forwards, so that is always something very interesting. He can add that.

on the commitment of Nasri and Fabregas…
I don’t know. I play the players who are available and Nasri is available so I play him. Yesterday, I made a check up of all our situations and, I must tell you, nothing has moved since yesterday. Not one way, nor another way.

If Fabregas is committed to this Club and wants to stay, no money will get him out of here. We are not in a position where we need to sell our players. We want to keep our players. We are not looking after money. We want the players to stay here, from our side that is clear.

on the possibility of Nasri leaving for nothing…
It’s not ideal for us on the financial side but, on the sporting side, he is an important player. We have to deal with the situation one way or another. In the next ten days we have to be clear on that front.

on the futures of Nicklas Bendtner and Emmanuel Eboue…
They are both on the verge of a move but nothing has been concluded with anybody. I don’t have any club in mind for Nicklas Bendtner because we are far from having done anything with anybody. I cannot give you any club because we have given him the permission to move.

on keeping Nasri at Arsenal…
If you ask me if I want to keep him, I say yes. But he needs to be committed to that as well. I don’t give them ten days, the transfer period is until August 31. Ideally, we go into big games in two weeks, in the next two weeks we have to sort out problems out. There is no specific deadline of one day or 24 hours. It’s not like you shoot a shuttle into space. Sometimes it’s very quick on that front and sometimes it’s very slow.

on Juan Mata...
If I translate your question you are asking that if the two go do we need to sign one then of course. They are two exceptional players and that's why personally I want to keep the two.

If I was the other players I would think 'I have a good opportunity to play'. If you have been a football player you never cry when somebody goes. I just told you 'let's be relaxed', if you want to start a crisis before the start of the season I can understand that but I don't see the need. We have played a football game today and it was enjoyable, so let's come back tomorrow and enjoy another one.

on whether he might change his captain...
We sort any problem out when we have a problem. At the moment the problem is to play good football tomorrow. Fabregas is not in my mind because he will not play tomorrow. I don't see why I should worry about that.

on Jack Wilshere...
It was always the plan to take him off - at half time he was coming off and Ramsey was coming on. The substitutions were decided before the game and I added a fifth at half time because I saw that the game would be physical and we have another one tomorrow.

on Fabregas being at the game...
Cesc loves deeply this club, he loves deepy as well Barcelona. That shows you that an honest player can love two clubs at the same time. He cares about this club and that's why I hope he can keep him.

Source: Arsenal.com on 30 Jul 11

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