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Koscielny on a hard-fought victory

Laurent Koscielny
Laurent Koscielny

Laurent Koscielny spoke to the media after Arsenal's 3-0 victory against Stoke City on Sunday. This is what he had to say:

on starting the game quickly…
It was very important to start well. I remember the game at Stoke [last month] and after 20 seconds we had conceded. We were very focused on that and it’s important to score early because afterwards they tried to play forward and score. We had some chances to score more, so it’s very important that the three points are with us because we lost the last [league] game, so it was very important for us to come back and win. We played well, like a unit, defended and attacked well. Alexis Sanchez played very well as well, so it’s important to take this into the next game.

on Alexis's performance…
Alexis is amazing because he’s played more than 25 games and he still runs like it’s his first game. It’s amazing and it’s not just in attack - he defends well. If he needs to run back to help us defend, he does, so he has a good mentality, which makes him a world-class player.

on feeling 100 per cent…
I’m feeling better and better game after game. The team played like a unit, like I’ve said before. It’s important to keep that up as well.

on whether Arsenal can rise up the table…
We can be higher but we need to keep our mentality to win more. Sometimes you don’t play well but you win, so that’s important for us to do so that we can climb higher up the table. We’ve started with a win now, so hopefully we can pick up more in a row.