Press conference

‘Monreal is a real leader in the team’

Nacho Monreal delivered another impressive performance as we reached the Carabao Cup final by beating Chelsea on Wednesday evening.

The Spain international added to his goal and two assists against Bournemouth by opening the scoring against Antonio Conte’s side, before Granit Xhaka completed our comeback on the hour mark.

Arsène Wenger was asked about reaching a fourth domestic cup final in five years, Monreal’s display and our switch of formations after the match. This is what he said:

on the performance…

They made us work for it, I felt that in the first half there were psychological and tactical reasons for us not expressing the quality of our game. We rectified that at half-time and in the second half we won the ball higher up, we could then get our midfield, who is technically very talent into the game and then we controlled the game. I felt in the second half basically we looked always like we could win this game and that’s what we did . In the end I would say it was a deflected goal in the first and then second one was as well a bit lucky, but I felt overall we controlled the game in the second half.

on whether Monreal is the most underrated player in England…

For me he gets very much credit, but maybe there’s a bit less focus on him because he is not a candidate for the English national team and doesn’t make many statements or maybe not enough on social networks, but our job is about performance and I like the world of silent leaders and that is when people come, they perform, they don’t talk, they go home and they come in the next morning, train well and then the next day they do it again. They are the real leaders in the teams.

on this being unfinished business after the last time we reached the League Cup final…

It is unfinished business yes, because we didn’t win, but we are again at Wembley and many times we were there, but we are in the final again and we can take our fans there. That’s what you want, but of course now we are in it we want to win it and we will play against a very strong side, so it could become a very interesting game.

on why he went with a four at the back…

Because we know each other well, we’ve had many draws and we wanted to win the game, we needed to score and overall I think the system, once I changed some things at half-time, worked quite well.

on whether he wants to be able to switch between a three and a four…

Yes, that’s what we did in the second half.

on when he said that a win would not have changed the mood…

No, I think I have the right sometimes to have a small sense of humour in press conferences, even if I am not very talent in it, but that’s what I said. Somebody once told me that at Arsenal you are never more than five minutes away from a crisis. I said no, three.

on winning all trophies available…

Look, we want to win the next game. Let’s be realistic. It’s a great, satisfying night for us because we managed to beat a strong team and I felt that in January we paid a heavy price for uncertainty that was existing in our dressing room. Now we are back with more clarity, we know what we have to do and we can focus on our game and so we had difficult months, but we responded well.

on whether being underdogs against City would help…

Once we are in the final you want to win it, but yes of course you want to win it. We prepare now, but the best way to prepare is first, we want to come back in the top four in the Premier League and so before we play the final we have a big job in front of us and that’s what we want to focus on.

on why he played a strong team…

Because we are out of the FA Cup and so I will focus on the League Cup of course and you can see last night that Manchester City do the same, they played exactly with everybody, so it is difficult to win trophies in England and that’s why when teams have an opportunity, they just do it.

on whether it was a blow to go out of the Emirates FA Cup…

Yes of course, it was a blow to go out of the FA Cup, but we won the FA Cup three years out of four, so you have to accept as well that at some stage you can as well, in 20 years we went out one time, but what is important in the quality of the game tonight is that we showed that we can beta big teams and that is most important, no matter what competition it is. Both teams went for it and what is important is the rest of the season.

on whether Manchester City are as good as they were when we last faced them…

Yes, of course. They are dominating the Premier League at the moment, but we’ll see in the final. They are a strong side, they look unstoppable, but at the end of the day we have one chance to beat them and if you play at your best that is what we will try to do.

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