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Monreal - We knew strong start was vital

Nacho Monreal
Nacho Monreal

Nacho Monreal says the Arsenal players were determined to “start really strongly” against Manchester United on Sunday.

Arsène Wenger’s side raced into an early three-goal lead at Emirates Stadium, courtesy of Alexis Sanchez’s double and Mesut Ozil’s first of the season.

Monreal insists the team were determined to respond after Tuesday’s defeat to Olympiacos, and reserved special praise for his Chilean team-mate.

"We wanted to start stronger because in the last game, we played at home in the Champions League and we lost"

“Last year he showed what an important player he is for the team,” Monreal told the Final Whistle. “He scored 25 goals in all competitions and this season he has started really well.

“In the first games, he couldn’t score goals but now he’s scoring goals. We need Alexis to score more goals and we are happy for him because he’s a really important player for us.

“When he’s fit, the level of the team is higher, so we are really happy.

“We wanted to start stronger because in the last game, we played at home in the Champions League and we lost, so the memory wasn’t good enough for us,” Monreal added. “We knew that we were going to play against a strong team so we needed to start really strongly.

“I think we did - our first 15 minutes were amazing. We pressed high and I think we did everything amazingly.

“For this reason, after 20 minutes we were winning 3-0. We are really happy about our performance.”

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Alexis, Francis Coquelin and Aaron Ramsey celebrate

 

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