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'We were rewarded for our initiative'

Arsene Wenger was a relieved man after his side claimed a late victory against Leicester City to keep their top-four hopes alive.

Afterwards, he faced the media to discuss the game, playing with a back three, facing Tottenham next and more.

This is what he had to say:

on a big win…
We took the initiative, we lacked a little bit of change of pace and penetration - you could see we had a few heavy legs. But you could see we were serious and didn’t give chances away. Maybe we lacked a little bit of speed in our game to get them out of position - but they defend well and are very difficult to get out of position. In the end, I think the win rewards the team who took the initiative in the game. Overall, we are very happy with that because we knew the three points would be very difficult tonight. Let’s not forget as well that we played on Sunday afternoon and Leicester did not play at all at the weekend. They had good preparation for the game and we knew we had a little handicap on that front.

on it keeping us in the top-four hunt…
We have one advantage, and that is of clarity. We have to win our games, so that is why we know we cannot be happy with a 0-0 - we have to take a gamble to try to win the game at any cost.

on our formation…
I finished with four at the back because when I took Gibbs off we moved to a four. We finished with four strikers: Welbeck, Giroud, Alexis and Ozil, plus we also had Ramsey who is quite offensive. We finished with four at the back because we absolutely had to win the game.

on whether there’s pressure on Arsenal to end Spurs’ title hopes on Sunday…
We play for ourselves, not others. In life, you work for your own achievements, not for others. What is important is that we go there, try to win the game and focus on our own performance. We do not want to go into any speculation on that. Sport is great but you’re never happy when others do badly and you do badly. You’re happy when you do well.

on Koscielny…
Koscielny has a knee problem but I don’t know how long he’ll be out for. I have to check because I don’t know yet.

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