Press conference

‘I’m unhappy with a point… but we were relentless'

For large periods of Sunday’s match at Southampton, it looked as though Charlie Austin’s third-minute goal would consign us to defeat.

But, towards the end of a second half in which we dominated without making many clear opportunities, Olivier Giroud nodded home Alexis’ inviting cross to give us a point.

Here’s how Arsène Wenger viewed the game.

on the result…

I’m not happy with the point because I wanted three, but if you cannot win it, don’t lose it. We kept going, we were relentless. After a difficult start we were caught cold and overall it was a windy, rainy afternoon against a team who played well and were quick on the counter-attack. It was important not to concede a second goal and in the end Olivier Giroud helped us at least rescue a point. Considering the quality of the team we faced, it is not so bad.

on what he said at half-time…

I felt at first that we rushed our game in the final 15 minutes of the first half and started to lose balls in the middle of their goal. We needed to play the way we wanted to play, defend quicker when we lose the ball and to put the ball under much more pressure. In the second half I felt it was one-way traffic, it was very difficult to create clear-cut chances.

on whether the United game was on their minds…

I felt that the Manchester United game played a bit of a part in the head of our defenders. It was a bit in their head and they were a bit apprehensive to start well again and that’s why it is sometimes not good to talk about the problem because you create a bigger one.