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Wenger on the win, Xhaka and belief

Arsene Wenger was a happy man after his side beat Nottingham Forest in the third round of the EFL Cup on Tuesday night. This is what he had to say:

on the result…
We got there in the end but the game was tough, Nottingham Forest played with full commitment. We needed to be patient and as well not to concede a goal - which we did well. Overall I felt that technically we played well, our combinations worked well and we played at a high pace and that’s where we made the difference in the game.

on Xhaka’s goal…
We suffered in the first 20 minutes a little bit and that goal helped us. After that I think everybody was focused to play the way we want to play football, sharp movement of the ball, great mobility in our team, always quick to move the ball and overall it was a convincing performance. We had some young players who did well and Lucas scored as well so overall it’s a positive night.

on summer signings scoring the goals…
Honestly, for me the most important is that we win the game, not who scores - it’s not so important. Individually, it’s good because he can convince people that he has the level to play for us and it will help himself as well to grow in belief.

on learning from last season’s defeat at Sheffield Wednesday…
I told the players that last year in the third round of the League Cup we won at Tottenham and then we went to Sheffield Wednesday and lost 3-0 because we were not ready mentally for the commitment of the Championship and I think our history helped us a little bit tonight to start in a much stronger way.

 

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