Wenger on the draw, chances and Giroud

Arsene Wenger spoke to the media after the goalless draw with Manchester United. This is what he had to say:

on the result…
If you look at the domination we had then yes [we should have won it] but Man United restricted us to very few chances and the few we had we couldn't take. On top of that, the quality they have going forward, when we lost the ball in their half they were dangerous, not always, but on one or two situations. When you have Van Persie, Mata, Januzaj - they are all players who can be dangerous on the counter. On the other hand you felt our team was highly focused not to concede, and that maybe restricted our game going forward a little bit because we were certainly hit by the five goals we conceded on saturday. You could feel that here.

on being disappointed…
No, we lost two points and we missed an opportunity to go top of the league again but a point keeps us in the race. We had difficult games just now, Liverpool and Man United, and from now on it is important we come back and win our games again.

on being nervous going forward…
I felt we were nervous, yes. Where we are usually very dangerous breaking through the middle with speedy passing, Man United defended very well there. we got plenty of crosses in and their experienced players, people like Vidic and Ferdinand in the second half, did very well with that. When we tried cut backs they defended well because they had Carrick, who has a lot of experience as well. Man United is a good team who can play against anybody in our league. At the moment they are not where they can be, but you cannot say with the players they on the pitch that they are not quality. They are quality.

on whether United can make the top four…
It is mathematically not impossible but it will be difficult for them because  Tottenham won, Liverpool won - it is very tight. I don’t know more than you.

on concern at the team being nervous…
It is not worrying because we care about what we do and when you concede five goals like we did on Saturday, we are only human beings and that is always what you get after a game [like that]. Sometimes you don’t score because the team was highly focused not to concede today.

on using substitutes...
It was important not to lose, but it was also important to win. There was not a lot to do because there were plenty of offensive players on the pitch in the whole game basically. We did not manage to score, but one of the positives is that one of the guys you questioned, Ozil, had a good game. He was one of our best players.
 
on Giroud...
He fights very hard. If he keeps that attitude he will score.
 
on lacking goals at the moment...
We are a bit short of goals at the moment, you are right. Mathematically we have lost goalscorers with Walcott and Ramsey. At the moment in games like that, you see that.
 
on how to rediscover top form...
Firstly by not losing tonight, then come back to our normal level offensively.
 
on playing with the handbrake...
Yes, tonight it was on, but I think it will [come off]. When you are hit like we were on Saturday, the players want not to lose the game and we could have lost it in the last five minutes.
 
on big matches coming up...
We have come out two difficult games and are still in a strong position. That is the only positive. We had two bad results, but we are still in a position where we can do it.