Press conference

Wenger - It was a stylish win

Arsenal rounded off the Europa League group stage with a thumping win over BATE Borisov on Thursday night, as Arsène Wenger recorded his 700th win for the club.

The boss spoke to the media after the game, reflecting on the win and assessing the performances from Jack Wilshere, Mathieu Debuchy and Theo Walcott.

On his 700th win…

I believe that it was done in a stylish way and in a technically-high quality game from our side. You can say the opponent was not at the level of the Premier League, and I would agree with you, but you can only do your job and that’s what we did, in a convincing way with remarkable spirit and finished well the job in this group stage. That’s basically it.

on Wilshere…

Look, Jack’s moving forward. You could see tonight that he is moving forward and ready to play now. He is sharp, he is quick, he is incisive again with his dribble and technically he was very good tonight. I would say for 70 minutes he was dominant in midfield on the creative side and that is very good news for us.

on Debuchy…

Yeah, they [he and Jack] are two similar players who have been out for a long time. He has had setbacks many times but now he’s fit and ready to play and you could see that from all the players who played tonight. First of all it was basically a Premier League team because they all have Premier League experience and they all have the quality to be in the Premier League.

Debuchy made it a century of goals for us in 2017 with his early strike

on Walcott…

Of course, he played very well. He is like Jack, he was very sharp today.