day_125

ARSENAL PLAYER

Thomas Vermaelen

The FA Cup Arsenal Match Menu Aston Villa

Arsenal 3-2 Aston Villa

The FA Cup

Sunday, January 29, 2012, 16:00

Vermaelen - I was always confident we’d win

By Rob Kelly

Thomas Vermaelen says he was always confident that Arsenal would come back and beat Aston Villa - even when they trailed 2-0 at half time.

Goals from Richard Dunne and Darren Bent had seemingly consigned the Gunners to an FA Cup fourth-round exit before Robin van Persie’s brace and a Theo Walcott goal completed a memorable turnaround.

But Vermaelen says his belief in the team’s ability to win the tie never wavered.

“I was still confident at half time. We were the better team the whole game, we were never really under pressure,” he said.

“It was a bit of a shock to be 2-0 down at half time because if you look at the way we played, we were quite aggressive and had some good opportunities to score, but Villa got a 2-0 lead.

“I was confident we could come back if we scored early in the second half and that's what we did. It was a sensational second half, we worked hard, we fought hard and the result is there.

“You could see that even in the first half we wanted to put them under pressure straight away, we wanted to keep the tempo high when we had the ball and we did that. In the second half we had that little bit of luck to score the goals.”

Watch the full interview with Thomas on Arsenal Player.

[Monday, January 30, 2012]

Print this page Email to a friend

Jenkinson exclusive

AFC Core Tee Was £16 now £10

Bookmark with…

Delicious Digg Reddit StumbleUpon

© Arsenal Broadband Limited 2012 - Terms of Use & Privacy and Cookie Policy - Website accessibility statement - Site powered by NTT Europe Online | Rippleffect