'We have to stay humble and hardworking'

On letting Sunderland back into the match...
"Yes, the game looked after 15 minutes to be easy and maybe we convinced ourselves of that as well. But Sunderland made it after difficult for us. I feel afterward that a bit of our mental focus went and then you lose three or four per-cent, and at that level of course you pay for it. We had less urgency in our decision-making, we gave them more room to express themselves defensively and we paid for it. At the end of the day it was a good lesson for us, maturing, because they came back to 2-2 but again we found the resources that still shows there is something in the team that is really strong."

On Walcott's introduction...
"Yes, I felt that we needed some pace to go in behind them, you know? We gave them too much of the ball and that made it easier for them. Theo gave us something that was certainly determined today."

On losing a two goal cushion...
"It was very frustrating and for the players as well, it looked too easy after 2-0, and you know that when you have experience in football that 2-1 is the biggest change psychologically for anybody. At 2-1 a team who has already lost the game thinks 'Oh,we have a chance', and the team that has already won the game thinks 'Oh, we can drop points again'. The first goal for Sunderland gave them a lot of confidence."

On Diaby's disallowed goal...
"Frankly, it was the third goal. I don't know how he could disallow that goal and certainly that would have changed the game completely because at 3-0 it would have been a different game. But you can only live with the decisions that are made and in the end we found the third goal. It always looked like it was coming, but when you hit the post once or twice and you don't score, you never know. And they looked as well, in all fairness, always good going forward."

On title talk...
"It's too early to say that but what is a good sign is when you are 2-0 up, they come back to 2-2, you win it again - that means there is a great strength and resilience in the team, and you don't panic. It's too early in the season, I hope you ask me that question in January. The potential is there to be very good but the competition at that level in the Premier League - you have seen today, we played against Sunderland who is down in the league - we still had problems so we have to keep very humble and hardworking for each other."

On McShane's red card...
"McShane gave a few good kicks today, but he's a very aggressive player. It looked to me a red card."

On Gilberto starting on the bench...
"I have a strong relationship with Gilberto, I spoke with him about that, I have a huge respect for him, you know? At the moment it is frustrating for him - incidentally it is his birthday today. He is an important player in the group, he is an important player in the team. As I said, it is a selection problem at the moment but he will come back into the side, I don't worry about that."