on an important weekend...
"It was a very good weekend for us because
after the results of yesterday we were a bit under pressure to take
advantage of the situation. We did it - I think we had a good
start, with a good drive, going forward for the first twenty
minutes, we scored an early goal. The second one didn't come
and then Blackburn came back into the game in the last twenty
minutes of the first half."
on the second period...
"In the second half I feel always we controlled
the game, Friedel kept them in it, we were a little bit in-between
'let's not make a defensive mistake' and 'go
forward and score absolutely the second goal' and I think the
dominance was a bit in the side tonight - 'let's not make a
defensive mistake and we'll score another one'. But
overall, that's why I sometimes believed we missed something
going forward, but overall Friedel kept them in the game and we
scored a goal in the last minute."
on the road ahead..
"We had always the belief from the first day on
but there is still a long way to go, you could see again tonight
that as soon as you are not at your best at the top you can drop
points, and we have seen that over the weekend. We still have
twelve games, we are in a good position, we believe we can do it
but we are not a fool as well, we know it's far from being over
and we will have to fight until the last minute of the
championship, certainly. We have a hard programme in front of us
like everybody else."
on the growing pressure...
"I don't know, I feel we handled the
pressure every time very well this week, this year, when we had our
backs to the wall. For example last week we played first, at Man
City, we won. This week we played last and we won as well. So in
all the different kind of situation we faced we came up with - the
only answer you can give when you are strong is to win your
game."
on sitting five points ahead of United...
"I don't want my team to focus on the
difference between us and the rest, I want them to focus on
strengthening our lead and going to every game to keep that
momentum going and assert our authority and to win every game, play
like real challengers."
on the fans...
"They were a bit nervy tonight with one-nil. Of
course, let's not be a hypocrite, you cannot say you are five
points in front and you don't believe... you believe you have
no chance, of course our supporters believe - rightly so. We
believe we have a chance to do it but we are conscious as well that
we have to keep our humility and our team spirit and the way we
want to play the game, and focus very well on the way we want to
play the game."
on being tipped as favourites...
"I don't know, that is always outside the
group, you know? That's in people's minds, in our minds we
believe we can do it and we want to grab this chance."
on Adebayor's run of goals...
"He can score goals but I believe as well all
the strikers as well benefit from the outstanding teamwork, and
it's not a coincidence that strikers who play here score goals
because everybody goes forward, everybody gives you good balls and
the team feeds you when you're a good striker. Here you get
quite good food!"
on Fabregas appearing on the right...
"I had no real choice, Fabregas was three days
in bed and credit to him, you know, not only did he play but we
took him out of bed to play tonight and we played him in a
different position. That shows you as well how much these players
are up for it."
Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 11 Feb 2008