Mohamed Elneny, the fight for a top-four place and the manner of our victory were all talking points in Arsène Wenger’s post-match press conference after the West Ham win.
Read on for what the manager had to say:
on the win…
Yes, you could see even if the result was not what we wanted against City, it had a positive impact on the morale of the team. In the first half we needed to be patient, not to make a mistake, and in the second half our technical superiority made the difference. At the end of the day it was a convincing win with good individual performances from everybody from the goalkeeper to the striker. So it’s a good result tonight and a relief as well because we have gone through a bad period. Overall you can say the mentality in the team is healthy and that is a good basis.
on the recent form…
We had difficult games and somebody just reminded me that we have scored more than 100 goals already this season, so going forward we have always been good, but defensively in recent weeks we were not efficient enough.
on if the team are playing for the manager…
I don’t know, they play first for the club and for themselves, and of course I am part of the club as well. I have never questioned the mentality of the team, it’s just when you go through a difficult period the confidence and happiness goes quickly and comes back slowly. Even for it to come back, you need to work and that’s what have to continue to do now – to keep the same attitude and same focus. We are on a difficult run, but let’s show what we are made of and continue to play with the same focus.
on the race for the top four…
It’s possible of course. We have a game in hand on City, we have players back from injury, we had a strong bench tonight. We have done it before, in more difficult conditions, and we have to try to do it again, yes.
on Elneny…
He gives us fluency and Elneny is a continuity player who is a generous player and wants to help the team. His attitude is always to help the team and he is always available. It’s a quality. He’s quickly available. There are two kinds of availability in midfield. Ones who straight away in a fraction of seconds can understand where he has to go to get the ball and these kind of players.
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