Wenger proud of attacking spectacle

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
21 Oct	7:45 PM	CL	Fenerbahce (A)	5	2	Win

After the 5-2 demolition of Turkish side Fenerbahce, manager Arsène Wenger was feeling nothing but pride over the performance of his young side.

The Gunners were already 3-1 up in the first half, and still managed to score two more goals in the second half despite taking their foot off the gas for a bit.

However, Wenger will want to be mindful over the tiny lapses in concentration that caused havoc in the heart of the defence.

The Frenchman said: "Because the two teams were going forward it was a very open game and Fenerbahce are an attacking side and are very dangerous going forward.

"Both teams were going forward 100% but the fact we scored an early goal forced Fenerbahce to come out and we caught them many times on the counter-attack.

"Our pace, movement and technique made the difference and allowed us to take advantage of it but it was not an easy game.

"I am very proud of the team. The average age was 23 and I am proud because we came in and tried to dictate the game in a very heated atmosphere.

"It is very pleasing that they seemed to play with no fear. I am pleased to see it works.

"We came here and had a go. We started strong, we remained quite strong and we finished strong."

User Comments

Jim

Posted on 23 Oct, 2008 at 08:50 AM - Reply

Almunia was great, it was his best performance so far!

graham_ka

Posted on 23 Oct, 2008 at 02:08 AM - Reply

no shit sherlock, we all know Arsenal are lethal in attack in an open game. We all know Arsenal defense is left to be desired. Giovanni at Barca or ManU? You kid yourself, he couldn't even cut it at Man City. He's in the form of his life, but it'll soon fade. Remember my remarks.

femi soile

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 09:55 PM - Reply

The only good thing about yesterday's game was that we played an off day, below par team, and also eboue, manuel, diaby and clichy played extremely well.
i personally think this is one of the poorest games arsenal have played in a long time. Our midfield was nowhere to be found, constantly exposing our already shaky defence even upfront we didnt do anything special, we only played a very poor team that made us look good yesterday. imagine if it was chelsea or even liverpool we played,we would have lost that game by a big margin. we definitely need tall players i hardly(never) see our defenders or midfielder winning headers from long balls, we need asolid and experienced defensive midfielder because denilson still has alot to learn, and we most definitely need a top striker, a poacher, a fox in the box. i dont see us winning anything with this team unless we strengthen the squad in january.

Timmy

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 08:20 PM - Reply

A win away from home is always great! Winning by that margine in Turkey was a great display of class by the Gunners! I know its clear to other teams that Arsenal cant be beaten by an attacking team, if you try to attack Arsenal youll always come out 2nd best! Our problem is the defence, i think everyone will agree with me on this! We need a tall, strong, experienced center back and DM!

Gunner 4 life

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 04:38 PM - Reply

Up the GUNNERS! I wouldnt be suprised if we win a double or even a treble this season! Our defence is our only problem, we hope AW will fix it! Lets get behind AW and our boys and have faith in them!!! Gooners 4 life, IN ARSENE WE TRUST!!!

lukj chand

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 01:48 PM - Reply

i hope the gunners win some title in this season.

frontline

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 01:43 PM - Reply

Some people are still hurting from the Hull game..

MerlinLondon

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 12:22 PM - Reply

Very interesting that he should be so full of pride. Shouldn't he be worried about the non-existent defence? Or the lack of a decent holding or defensive midfielder to partner with Cesc? In my view, Diaby's masterful performance in the first half makes him better suited for a role in central midfield with Cesc than Denilson. Premiership teams are more likely to exploit such a porous defence as Arsenal fielded. Thus I do not expect Arsenal to be very successful in the EPL this season with that kind of defence. I will probably take some flak for writing this because recently it has become clear that Arsenal fans who criticise Wenger and the team's performance are not usually posted on this forum.

Gunner 4 life

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 12:15 PM - Reply

Yep, the Young Guns did it again! The defence was very shaky, but our attackers were sublime! We still need a defencive CM and a strong center back in our team i think! Its 2 wins in 2 games now, and i can safely say that we are through to the knockout stages of the CL! So now we can focus on getting our league campaign back on track! I hope Chelsea and Liverpool play to a draw on sunday, we really have to close the gap on both of them! So there's one thing we learned from this game, no team can beat us with an attacking strategy because we are the best in that department!!! We now have to learn how to cope with defencive teams, then we'll be unstopable!!!

Femi

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 11:43 AM - Reply

C-O-N-S-I-S-T-E-N-C-Y! This is a good team no doubt, but they lose focus too easily especially after a great run in Europe. Champions are not just good playing side, but those with mental strength to focus till end result. That's why Liverpool came back in Europe to beat them & Arsenal lost Prem last season- 'cos they could not concentrate after beating AC Milan (not because of Gallas!) Look at Lampard's comments in Sun for example. All teams in Prem know that if you want to cause Arsenal lapse in concentration START PRAISING THEM-GETS INTO THEIR HEADS EASILY AND THE REST IS HISTORY. If they can FOCUS, they'll do great!

David

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 11:40 AM - Reply

Hull is a flash in the pan and will be soon losing games and dropping to where they deserve - the bottom half of the table. And I am sure we will beat them 7:0 the next time we meet them. If our attacking play keeps resulting in goals, our defensive weakness could be easily overcome as long as we score more goals in the front, like last night!

Jos Manya

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 11:25 AM - Reply

That was a good performance from our young team and the only thing we need to sort out is the defence and we need to work on set pieces as we are very poor on that kind situations. But overall well done lads and keep it up.

cyril

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 09:12 AM - Reply

Nasri was a disappointment.

He was trying to hold on the ball with no effect or reason too many times. Needs to work on his passing

AARON

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 09:04 AM - Reply

You may be on to something Eddie. Great win by the way!!! Lets do the same against Tottenham.

cyril

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 08:13 AM - Reply

4-5-1 with Diaby instead of 4-4-2 with RvP works!!

Did anyone else noticed that our midfield looked fluid nearly like last years?! that's because playing 4-4-2
with RvP does not work. RvP is not Diaby nor Hleb, Diaby can play midfield and striker like Hleb, he can play both feet and he can defend quite well high or down the pitch the same way Hleb did, plus he scores goals and assists.

RvP out, Diaby in.

Eddie Yak

Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 at 06:47 AM - Reply

Any team wantimg to play fast attacking offensive football against Arsenal usually ended up wounded
and hurt because Arsenal is a master of open attacking football themselves. Only defensive teams can upset them by defending and breaking occasionally to attack their poor defense. The Arsenal defence is not upto the stardard set by their midefielder. Teams like Fulham and Bolton always managed to holdup Arsenal because they are familiar with Arsenal's style and players and Hull's win recently because Arsenal over confident looking down on this newly promoted team. Several teams got bitten too but in another few months Hull will definitely slide down the ranking when other teams get to understand their style better. Hull City has one very outstanding player, Giovanni, this guy will certainly be tempted by the big four very very soon. He is the man behind the success of Hull because he is a outstanding player who can play fantastic football and his freekick is very deadly. I think he don't deserve to be in Hull, he should be in Manchester United or Barcelona. Remember my remarks.

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