Interview

Wilshere - Second half improvement was key

Arsenal are heading back to Wembley, and Jack Wilshere believes it's all down to the second-half performance against Chelsea.

The Gunners fell behind to an early Eden Hazard strike, but came back to win it through a Granit Xhaka strike after the break, when Arsène Wenger switched from a four-man defence to five at the back.

After the game Wilshere had this to say to the media…

on what got the team to Wembley…

I think the team effort, especially in the second half. In the first half we didn’t start well and we knew that, but we got ourselves back in the game and in the second half we knew we had to improve and we dug deep. Granit got the goal and then we knew they would come forward, but I think we dealt with that really well.

on whether they were worried at any point…

It was strange, we might have got our formation wrong in the first 20 to 25 minutes and they took advantage of that. They’ve got players who can damage you through the middle and they did, but we came back into it and showed good character, I thought we were the better team in the second half.

on our goals…

At this level we feel like we were creating good opportunities. Iwobi had a good chance and we felt we could create chances at any time, we just had to keep it secure at the back, through the middle and we did that, and showed the quality going forward.

on the last time we reached the League Cup final…

As you said we’ve been to Wembley since then and we’ve got a good record. We know City are a good team and are going to give us a good test when we go there. But it’s a final, we need to be up for it, we need to be ready for it and we want to win that trophy.

on whether what’s happening now feels surreal…

I wouldn’t say surreal. I went out last year and I wanted to come back and fight for my place in this team. I’m happy to be in the team playing with great players and we seem to be in a great moment now, we won the last game, we won this game and we want to keep that going.

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