Arsène Wenger faced the media after watching his team come from behind to beat Norwich City 3-1 at Emirates Stadium.
This is a transcript of his post-match press conference:
on the comeback...
We left it a bit, it was unexpected of course to be 1-0 down at that stage of the game because we were on top and we missed chances. We knew Norwich were strong on set-pieces and they punished us. After that we needed spirit and we needed as well nerves. We have shown both I think and in the end got a win we deserved. But credit to Norwich, they have played very well and if they play like that they will not go down. They defended well and they gave us problems. We missed the chances and from then on it was important to show absolute resilience and we did it.
on the penalty decision…
Honestly I haven't seen it but everybody tells me it was a penalty. Television confirmed the penalty. Maybe it wasn't a corner but they tell me as well it wasn't a free-kick [for the Norwich goal].
on the substitutions…
They had a good impact, yes. They came on with a good attitude and a good spirit. Once Norwich got a bit tired, they made a difference.
on Norwich's defensive work…
They restricted us. In these kinds of games you need to open it up and to open it up you need to score a goal. We didn't do that so then you think 'let's not make a mistake' so you lose your spontaneous fluency a bit and it becomes more difficult.
on climbing into third place…
Well at the moment the position is not important. What is important is to keep our run going and the consistency of our wins. That is important. The position at the moment has no real meaning. It means we are all tight and the team that is the most consistent will get there. At the moment we have that consistency so we want to focus on that. We have another big game on Tuesday night and we have a good opportunity that we want to take.
on Jack Wilshere's return…
He worked very hard, he has been in full training since Wednesday. Walcott has only been in full training since Friday. We thought [Wilshere] had enough in the locker to play an hour and, on top of that, Rosicky, who played in this position last week, was not available. I would not have pushed him in, maybe, had Rosicky been available. I didn't want to restructure the team that has been successful so he was most suited to play in this position.
on Lukas Podolski…
The luxury we have is to have Podolski, Walcott and Chamberlain on the bench. We have offensive quality on the bench at home, so once you get the team under pressure it is very helpful.
on Podolski's role at the Club…
Look how he played when he came on. As soon as you have a player who doesn't play for three games, the papers get a story like that. But he looks very happy to be here.
on holding their nerve…
It is a question of nerves and I think the win today was a balance of nerves, quality and intelligence. In the end we didn't do anything stupid when we were 1-0 down, and kept facing our game. That side of the game will be important of course.
on refereeing decisions…
No matter on what end, you want the referees to make the right decision. The real question is 'was it a penalty or not?' If it was a penalty it doesn't matter what end it is. If you go into that kind of speculation you would question every single decision of the referee. What you have to question is whether it was a penalty - and everybody says yes.
Originally Posted by Cripps
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