Arsene Wenger felt his side had overcome a “psychological hurdle” after they beat Chelsea 3-0 with an unforgettable performance on Saturday.
He spoke to the media afterwards, and this is what he had to say:
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on being pleased to finally beat Chelsea in the league…
Before the game, we had to deal with some inconvenient facts and they were that we couldn’t beat Chelsea for years. To get that out of the system was at stake as well today.
on wanting to repay some of the past results against Chelsea…
What was very important for me was that the psychological hurdle didn’t stand in our way. You have not to make too much of it but as well not ignore it. You cannot say to your players that they have always done well against Chelsea, because it’s not true. To find that balance is not always easy, but I told them the best way was to focus on the quality of the football we wanted to play and do that with belief. Today it went quite well.
on Coquelin…
He has a knee injury at the same place he had last year at West Brom. That’s the negative of the day. We don’t know if the damage is as big, at the moment, we have to wait for 48 hours. But he left the stadium in a brace and I’m a bit worried for that.
on the volume of the fans…
I always said that it’s down to us to get the fans behind the team and not reverse. We did not always manage that, I think last year, especially in a very sensitive period it was not so much the case. But today, yes I felt that they really agreed with the quality of our performance.
on Walcott’s performance…
I think you cannot question his performance. I believe more the chance of Theo Walcott is his attitude this season. He’s ready to fight, commit and you know that straightaway he gets the crowd behind him. Theo Walcott of that stature is a completely different player.
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