Wenger on red cards and PSG draw

Arsene Wenger was a satisfied man when he sat down for his press conference following Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Paris Saint-Germain.

Here’s what the manager said about the game and some of the talking points:

on the result and performance…
I feel overall we played against a good Paris Saint-Germain team, who started much stronger than us. They played at a high pace, but even in the first half I think we were in trouble mainly when we lost the ball on the counter-attack because they pressed well. Even in the first half you could see that if we managed to keep the ball a bit better we would be dangerous - we created chances. In the first half, our midfield played a bit too far from Alexis. In the second half we played higher, and after the kick-off in the second half we had a good chance to come back, which we did. In the end we have experience in the Champions League and we got a good point.

on the benefits of Arsenal’s experience…
When you start so badly against a team of that quality you need experience. If you are too young, you can be caught. I thought that we didn’t panic, and overall we were resilient enough, and the resilience comes through experience. I told the players at half-time that if we keep playing we will come back, because we could see if we had better possession we could score goals. Overall, I think it was a good result to come here and not lose and pick up a point.

on Cavani’s performance…
I think Cavani was good tonight if I’m honest. I think he was very effective in terms of his pressing.

on the red cards…
The ball was on the other side, I did not see what happened. I think the first yellow card [for Giroud] was very harsh already, it wasn’t a foul. The second, he tells me he has done nothing at all and Olivier is honest so I believe him. And Verratti told me as well that he has done nothing, so I said look, ‘go together to see the referee and tell him you did nothing’.

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