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Wenger on a crucial three points

Arsene Wenger addressed the media after his side carved out a 1-0 victory away at Queens Park Rangers.

on the result…
We scored early and started well. After that, QPR played with quality and pride. They were fearless. You could see that this side had played with special pressure and fear in recent months. They had the quality to stay in the Premier League and they made life difficult for us. We had good determination and focus. We lacked a few final balls in the final third. But I expected a difficult game and I was not disappointed. Sometimes when a team goes down they played well in the game after and win. You could see that as Reading won away from home. We need a special focus to win this game.

on concerns on the performance…
The pitch did not help. I believe that QPR are a better team than people expects. But we did not give many chances away. Overall we played a little bit conscious that points were vital and we could not make any mistake. It was detrimental to our offensive game but we had a sound defensive game today.

on this result affecting Chelsea on Sunday…
It puts you under pressure because you have to make a result. But Chelsea play a lot and when you have many, many games you don’t think about it. You just go into the next one. That is the advantage. When you have a week to wait the nerves can play a bigger part.

on if Tottenham scoring late on was in the players' minds before the game…
I knew the score but for us it's the same if Tottenham draw or win. We have to win our game. We can only focus on what is needed for us - win the game and prepare for the next one. We've done that for a long time now. We're on a very strong run and we're up for it. We're ready for a fight and the team is highly focused to do it.

on Walcott reaching 20 goals for the season…
He is 24 now. He's a mature player. He has improved his finishing. He has improved his ability to resist to pressure from the opponent. It was a similar goal to the one he scored on Sunday against Man United.

on concerns about Podolski…
He has no injury problem. It's only his second game now up front. We have to give him a bit of time.

on if momentum will play a crucial role…
We definitely have momentum. If you look at the points we have made compared to two months ago. We are going for it and we make the points. Away from home recently, we've won everywhere - at Fulham, at Sunderland, at Swansea and at QPR. It [was a] derby which was difficult to win.

on Tottenham and Chelsea playing multiple times before Arsenal take to the field next…
I cannot even tell you what the result I wish [for]. Of course I want a result that goes for us, but again, it's not because I wish something that you will get the result. A long time ago we focused on us getting the maximum points. We have nearly done that because we dropped two points against Everton and two points against Man United. Apart from that, we've won every single game and we have to continue to do that.

on if he can remember Arsenal scoring as quickly as Walcott did…
No. I can't remember. Unfortunately I waited for the second goal but it never came!