'It was an important win. We needed it'

On Arshavin playing centrally...
"When it works, they like it. I don't think he was a fanatic to play centre forward but I am convinced because he has good body power and movement and good technique. He has intelligent movement and it worked today. He could have had two or three goals and overall he did very well."

On Arshavin being the answer to Van Persie absence...
"I don't know yet, I have to try it again and to see if it works at home, away from home and to find as well a balance because I had many technical players around him with Rosicky, Nasri, Fabregas, Eboue, and all penetrating from deep positions. That is needed when you have a player like Arshavin. We will see but at the moment we do not have much choice with Walcott out, Bendtner out, Van Persie of course. But we could get Walcott back, we could get Bendtner back in two to three weeks. We had as well Diaby and Song out today, they should be available next week."

Getting the three points...
"It was needed. I feel we had a good first half and we should have been two or three up and then in the second half you could see that recent defeats had played on our mind because it was only 1-0 and we were a bit more restricted. But what I liked is that we didn't give any chances away and we got the second goal that secured the win. You could see how we have a game based on initiative and if our confidence dropped we are in danger. That's why we could not lose confidence."

On today's injuries...
"We had Eboue with a muscular problem, Rosicky with a groin problem, Traore a hamstring problem and Gallas a hamstring problem. We are hopeful that Eboue, Traore and Gallas are not too serious but Tomas Rosicky is out for a while. Eduardo has a thigh problem, he had to stop training yesterday. It is a little recurrence, the medical staff tell me he could be available next week."

On Fabregas' missed penalty...
"Yes I did think it might be one of those days, especially when you play against Stoke who are well-organised, mentally strong and they do not need many chances to score a goal against you because of the long throws or set pieces. If you make a mistake they take advantage of it. At the end of the day we scored the most difficult chance in the first half."

On the relief of winning again...
"Yes it was a relief for the team especially. I want this team to be successful and we had two big disappointments recently. I do not speak about the Carling Cup but the defeat at Sunderland and the defeat against Chelsea was difficult to take. If we had not won today then you can question that mentally we have been touched but the fact we won was very important.

On Freddie Ljungberg's visit...
"I have seen him but no, he will not train with us [during his break from the US League]. He has not asked me. I have heard he has done extremely well in the States and he was the star, so I am not surprised."

[Saturday, December 05, 2009]

Print this page Email to a friend