Wenger on...that penalty
"They wanted to play the ball together between
two players. In fairness it should have been retaken. They checked
on TV and he did not touch the ball twice. But it was a mess. Even
if you are 10-0 up you want to play the game in the way it should
be played. They thought it was a good way to score the goal. I
don't think they made they right decision that is
all."
Wenger on...Henry and Pires practising it in training
"You do a lot of things in training for fun it
was not planned to take the penalty like that. It was not meant to
be disrespectful to anyone they just wanted to score the goal and
finish the game."
Wenger on...Pires' reaction
"Robert came to me after the game, telling me
he was sorry and that he had made a big mistake. As a manager, you
have to live with these things. My reaction after the incident was
one of surprise. Maybe if Robert had missed the first penalty, you
could have understood had he tried to pass the ball as he would
have been shaky. But he should have been full of confidence after
smashing in the first penalty so marvellously.
"At least Robert has been 'vaccinated' for life. He was scared that he would hit it too hard. But in the end he made a mess of it because he did not hit it hard."
Wenger on...the performance
"We left a lot of power in the Champions League game and you
could see the result today. Liverpool and Manchester United showed
it can be a difficult after a Champions League game, especially
against a good Manchester City team. I am very happy with the three
points but we were a little bit flat physically."
Arsène Wenger
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 23 Oct 2005
