The defender spoke to the media after Arsenal's dramatic win against Leicester City. You can read a full transcript below:
on Welbeck…
I said to the lads to keep believing, keep going and we need to put pressure on them, but that is a breathtaking finish from Danny Welbeck. You see every player can make a difference in this squad and we are happy to have him back. You could see his impact.
on Vardy’s penalty…
We have to take it. They were maybe a bit lucky with the penalty but if there is contact then it is a penalty. On the second occasion when they got a player sent off, we might have been a bit lucky. That is the game. We tried to stick to our game and not be influenced by the referee’s decision. That is what we tried to do the whole game and I think it makes a difference in the end. If you think too much about situations then you will lose yourself and we kept going and that is why we won today.
on the performance…
We played well, especially in the first half defensively. How everyone dropped back and recovered well when we lost the ball was outstanding. We created a lot of chances and we were a bit unlucky with our finishing, we could have got the winner earlier but we will take it. The energy creates such a finish and you could see the fans were absolutely delighted.
on the manager being criticised for substitutions of late…
We haven’t spoken about that. We are not looking too much at the rumours and the press so we tried to concentrate and we are in a good situation. That is why we concentrate on ourselves and not about rumours. You said about criticism about the manager, so we don’t look at that. Every player counts and every player contributes and you could see that today.
on the title race…
There was a drought in January with the results but we came back strongly against Bournemouth. We need it, if you want to challenge for anything in this league you need to win. We proved it on the pitch today and when we look at training sessions everyone is focused on what is coming up.
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