Quotes

'We need to stay together and keep fighting'

Laurent Koscielny was disappointed after our defeat to West Ham United, but stressed the importance of the squad staying unified.

Afterwards, our club captain spoke to the media to discuss the performance, missing some chances and our recent away form.

This is what he said:

on a poor result..

We came here to win because for us the three points was very important, and next week as well to play against Chelsea. We tried to play, we did well in the first half but didn’t have a lot of chances in the final third. We need to keep calmer in the final third and find the final ball, but in the second half we didn’t start well and conceded early. After that we tried to push for the rest of the game, we had some chances and we didn’t score so it is difficult to come back with no points but we need two continue to fight to make the top four.

on the lack of chances…

Strikers sometimes have just one opportunity and they [are expected to] score, but sometimes you do it and sometimes it is more difficult. We are all together, it is not down to] one or two players, we are a group and we need to stay together and to push more for the next game.

on our recent away form…

No [it is not becoming an issue], we don’t think about this. We take it game after game, today we worked well during the week to prepare and we had the ambition to get the three points. But in football you don’t know, you have your opponent and I think they played well with quality. We need to keep our confidence and continue to work together and the results will come.