Arsene Wenger faced the media after his side's 2-0 win against Stoke City on Saturday afternoon. This is what he said:
on the performance...
They scored so it is good for them but I believe we put in a very strong performance. Technically we had our moments in the first half and we played the football we wanted to play and created several chances. Maybe if I wanted to be critical I could say that that there is too big a difference between the number of chances we created and the number of goals we scored but that will come quickly once you win your games at home.
on being back among the goals...
I was not worried about that as I knew that would not last forever with the number of chances we create. We are the team who has created the most chances since the start of the season and we had 30 shots on goal today and continuously we created chances today from the first to the last minute and the players had the quality to score so at some stage that would have come. I also believe we have stabilised out defensive record, we have not conceded after a difficult start we did not concede against Liverpool and at Newcastle and today so that is good for our future.
on why he started Walcott...
To use the movement of Walcott. I know Stoke are a compact, organised team in their own half and Theo could find little pockets to get in their and maybe that you get two or three chances to counter attack at home so maybe you can use that. He scored a great goal because you needed technical quality to score and timing in the finish. It is good Giroud came on scored as well.
on Walcott's performance...
He has chances. He can be a prolific goalscorer. When you come out of the game and look at the amount of chances he scored. The bigger the belief he has to score the more he will score. But he gets in good situations.
on Gabriel and Koscielny’s partnership...
They looked very strong as Stoke had quite an offensive force out there and I felt Koscielny was outstanding and Gabriel had a very good game. Coquelin as well was outstanding so we had a good triangle in the centre of the park. It was very strong.
on Mertesacker...
He should not worry. He should just come back and play. It is good we have four centre backs and this produces a problem. If Walcott plays and scores everybody says that Walcott is good but before the game everybody says I should buy a striker but if I had a bought a striker then Walcott would not have played. So it is always a vicious circle and at some stage you just have to believe in your players and Gabriel has shown that he can play with Mertesacker, he can play with Koscielny and he can be a great defender.
on a big week ahead...
We are looking to play well against Dinamo Zagreb as it is important you do not lose your first game. What we can do at Chelsea is a big game and it is next Saturday morning at 12:45pm and it is important we focus on that.
on whether Chelsea can catch Man City...
I don’t know, I will leave these conclusions to you. It is a long season, only five games played. We will see in the future.
on the league position...
When you lose your first home game it is difficult to predict that we would be in that position as the confidence grew quickly. It was important to respond in our second game at Crystal Palace lets not forget that and we did well.
on Walcott being prolific...
It helps. I think at the moment we play every three days for four weeks. I will have to rotate the strikers without robbing their confidence. But you cannot always play with the same player every three days especially up front.
on Welbeck...
It was a shock of course. I think Welbeck can play in every position up front and he is a fantastic guy. To see him work for three or four months and then be ruled out again for three or four months is difficult to understand but we have to deal with that. I can understand that people say that we have to look out for a striker but we honestly did not find anyone.
on Wilshere’s injury...
Wilshere progresses slowly. We will know more about Jack in the next few days and hopefully it will be good news but he progresses.
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