Read extra quotes from Arsène Wenger's press conference as he looks ahead to Saturday's game against Norwich City:
on the key to beating Norwich…
Norwich are a team who plays more so we have to stop them from combining well. For us, it is important for us to score early if possible to put them under pressure and play at a high pace.
on whether Norwich are underdogs in the relegation fight…
No, I don’t know. It is very difficult to predict at the bottom of the league what will happen because you have Newcastle, Sunderland, Norwich and it is very difficult to predict because as well it is a nerve problem.
on his 750th Premier League game in charge…
You go game by game. You just focus on the next one and I just want to win the game always.
on fan protests…
I think this club has special values and we care about the club and our fans as well. We try to keep everybody happy. We have to put things into perspective and see how the club has evolved over the years. I believe that it was not always easy and the quality of the work we have done has got [the club] into a strong position where the expectation is very high. The frustration is very high when we don’t get what we want.
on being a supporter himself…
I wish when I go that the club goes higher up and wins the Champions League and the championship every year. I will be the biggest supporter in the stand because I will feel that I have contributed to that a little bit with the basis that we have built. You have to remember that when we built the stadium, we had five to seven difficult financial years, where we had to pay back. Out of five years, we had to be in the Champions League for three years and have an average attendance of 54,000 people. We didn’t know if we would be able to do that but of course we had to sell our best players every year and survive. We survived at the top level and did not do three years out of five. We did five years out of five. I think the club is now out of that period and is in a much stronger position. Today we are in a position where we can compete again financially with our main opponents. But during that time, it was very difficult.
on Man Utd possibly getting fourth…
It’s possible of course, but that is why I say to you we have to fight and not feel sorry for ourselves, focus on what we can achieve and look back and think we have done well - as well as we could. Attitude-wise we have been impeccable from the first to the last day.
on needing to pick the players up…
We are of course disappointed, but we work together closely and we have a good professional attitude even if we are frustrated by the recent happenings. We have to focus on our next game.
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