'We must turn the decisive moments in our favour'

Facing Manchester City just four days after our Carabao Cup final defeat at Wembley offers us an immediate chance to start making amends.

Pep Guardiola's side may be running away with the title, but the game is vital for our hopes of making the top four and this is what Arsene Wenger said to the media on Wednesday:

on what we need to do differently against City on Thursday…

I felt it was a very tight game until the 2-0 [on Sunday]. When you look at the end of the game, Man City had three shots on target and we had two. So overall, I believe that we have to turn the decisive moments in our favour [this time] and play with more freedom than we did. I think we played a bit apprehensively and that is important that we go into the game with that force that is part of our game and our philosophy.



on how he lifts the players after Sunday…

Well, when you do not get the result, it’s part of our job. Part of our job is to respond and to focus on the next game. You want only to win games, it’s not always possible, so it’s the way you respond. I believe that [we need to] analyse well, focus on the next one and respond together in a united way, which his part of our philosophy at the club.

on whether we’ll surrender possession again on Thursday night…

Look, we did that in the semi-final of the cup and it worked. I would just like to remind you that the possession was 57-43, so it was much more even than what you say here. We had less of the ball in the semi-final and we had beaten them, so if it was as mathematical as that, we analyse well our games and overall I believe that yes, we always have the ball because you cannot stop them completely from having possession as well because they are top quality. As I told you, they dominate the league at the moment and there is a reason. You have to accept that. I am quite amazed how people analyse that. It looks like we have lost against bottom of the league in division five. We have lost against a team that dominates English football at the moment. Yes we are unhappy, yes we are disappointed, yes we are not happy with our performance. But we have to take perspective and I think that means sitting back a little bit, analysing it well with a distance and then coming in and committing for the next game. I think we lack a little bit of perspective in our analysis.

on the fact we lost to Ostersunds…

But again, there is no perspective. We won 3-0 in the first game, what you want in the two legs is to win the game and I accept we had a big disappointment on Sunday, but you cannot come out with the game against Ostersunds because we qualified.