Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi were two of the stars of the show as Arsenal
beat Chelsea 3-0 at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Afterwards, they spoke to the media and this is what they had to say:
- 'We cleared a psychological hurdle'
- Boss - The first half was nearly perfect
- 'It is great fun playing with Theo'
- Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea - Report
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on the performance…
TW: I’m still getting my breath back! We worked really hard, we worked hard in the week and we obviously know what’s happened in the past. But the past is the past, it’s all about now and this team is bright and young and has got a lot more experience in these games now. People would expect us to go on and get four or five but that’s not the case. You saw on the kick-off this morning, it’s always easy to actually get 11 men behind the ball and they’ve got to come for us then. And then it plays into our hands. But the guys did well today, really well done.
on being more aggressive…
AI: We’ve started the season very well, we’re mentally up for the game and that’s the main thing. As long as we’re mentally strong we will do well.
on the dominant nature of the first half…
TW: When we played Man United at home last year it was fantastic, but I think it’s been quietly coming actually, to be honest with you. We’ve been quietly doing our business and like I said, everyone is just working for eachother now. We’ve got some great individuals but when you get those individual stats you play as a team as well, everyone is focused and you could see that the 11 men wanted to win this more than the other team today and thankfully we did that.
on fast movement in attack…
AI: Yeah, we played well, especially in training we’re working together very well. We’re training very well and we’re just putting a lot of training into matches, which is on show today.
on whether this is a statement…
TW: You know what, we’ve been here before. I’ve had so much experience in the years, but like I say, we’re not doing ourselves any harm. We just want to keep on doing our business, that’s all we want to do. We want to try and improve and see what the negatives were in the game, I’m sure there’ll be a few. We always wanted to keep a clean sheet, if we keep clean sheets we’re going to win games because we can score goals up front, so you’ve got to give credit to everyone today.
on scoring on his 350th appearance…
TW: It was a great move and I’d like to get 10 more of those a season. They’re nice, but I was in the right place at the right time and I was pleased with that. But like I say, I’m more pleased with the three points and we’ve obviously got a big game on Wednesday now. We’ve got to recover well, there’s games coming thick and fast now and that’s why I’m leaning against this wall right now!
on whether he feels like he’s part of a team of men…
TW: Yeah, watching the PSG game on the side when I didn’t travel, you could sense in that game particularly that it was a tough game for us but we got through it and we got a very good point. You could just see the experience and the years in the Champions League, hopefully it’s bedding in to this team now. In years gone by we know how it’s been with Chelsea and the most important thing is today we kept 11 men on the pitch. It was important for everyone to be very disciplined and we were today. Our two centre backs were fantastic with Costa today, really good.
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