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Wenger on the draw, Flamini and injuries

Arsène Wenger faced the media following the 2-2 against Southampton at St. Mary's. Scroll down for a transcript from the press conference.

on the performance…
I think in the first half Southampton played very well and we didn't play well. Southampton deserved the lead at half-time. In the second half I felt we played well. It was a very good football game. We have shown a lot of character and resilience to respond to what happened to us in the first half. Overall I would say it's a difficult point but a fair one. I wouldn't say it was a very, very bad performance, I think it was a very good football game and Southampton deserved some credit.

We were a bit unlucky with the decision on the first goal, twice. First on Mertesacker, there was no foul, after there was a foul on Monreal. But I don't complain on the quality of our game in the first half - it was not good enough. We had some problems to get into the pace of the game. In the second half it was much better but after when he had to push on for the third goal we were down to ten men so we had a least to go home with a point.

on the nature of the title race making three points is a must…
You want the three points in every game but it is a difficult place Southampton.  When you look at our overall record it can happen that sometimes away from home you can take only one point.

on doing anything to stop tackles like Flamini's one…
Look I will have to see it again. To me it looked harsh. He got the ball. If you say that every time a guy makes a two-footed tackle it is a red card, he deserves a red card. If you say was it a violent tackle, I would say no because he played the ball. But the referee made this decision and we have to cope with it.

on the frustration of Southampton's immediate equaliser…
I think it was a misunderstanding between Sagna and Mertesacker on the long ball and maybe we switched off a bit.

on the first-half performance…
I don't want to look for any excuses. We played in second gear and Southampton were in fourth. They played at a higher pace than us, they decided to stop us from playing, they did it very well but it's difficult to maintain what they did for 90 minutes and during the season but they did it very well in the first half.

on Ramsey's injury…
Aaron Ramsey is out for longer than we expected because he had a little setback in training yesterday. So I couldn't bring him here. It's the same muscle, he did [damage it] a bit again so we have to be cautious this time.

on whether losing Ramsey and Flamini is a huge blow…
Yes.

on Wilshere…
Wilshere is not bad.

on Ryo…
Miyaichi played last night in the Under-21s game at Chelsea. It was a cup game, we won 1-0 and Miyaichi played in that game, he did quite well and we qualified. He's with us.