Arsene Wenger was delighted with the quality that Arsenal showed to keep alive their hopes of reaching the knock-out stage of the UEFA Champions League.
A 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb was thoroughly deserved on a comfortable night of European football for the first time this season.
The Gunners have failed to deliver thus far in Group F, but two goals from Alexis Sanchez and one from Mesut Ozil only highlighted how poor they were to lose to the Croatians on matchday one.
Wenger expressed his joy at the performance which sets up another must-win game in Greece in two weeks time.
We played at a good pace and produced a game of quality that we wanted.
I believe the speed of our movement and passing gave Zagreb a problem. From then on, once we had scored the first goal you could see the chances were coming.
It was important that we did not concede the first goal as we looked dangerous [going] forward. Overall we had a game of quality that we controlled well.
Bayern Munich held up their end of the bargain to keep Wenger’s side in the mix by thrashing Olympiacos 4-0.
A two-goal margin victory or a 3-2 win or higher now separates Arsenal from what was looking impossible after defeats in the opening two games of the campaign and Wenger will take his side believing they will complete the task.
What we wanted was to come out of this game with a chance to qualify and we needed to do the job and Bayern Munich needed to do the job and they did that well.
It gives us a chance but how big the chance is I don’t know. I believe we can do it.
If we go ahead 1-0 then they will be in a situation where they could lose it and we will be a situation in the game which we can win it, so we have to go there to win the game. If you can win 1-0, you can win 2-0.
With the game won early in the second half, the Arsenal manager decided to substitute Olivier Giroud, Hector Bellerin and Santi Cazorla instead of Alexis Sanchez.
The Frenchman explained his thinking, joking that resting the Chilean makes him tired.
I would have loved to do it [rest Alexis] tonight but I [had] two different options. Once it is 3-0 you are not in a position where you need him to work back and when you put him central up front you can spare a bit of energy.
It is not like you have to go up and down. I tried to compromise a little bit and give a break to Giroud and not take a risk with Bellerin. He had a groin problem just before so I had to take them off meaning I could not take Alexis off. We now have five days to recover.
