Following Arsenal’s 2-1 FA Cup triumph over promotion hopefuls Burnley, Arsene Wenger spoke about how his side performed, Mohamed Elneny’s debut for the club, amongst several other topics.
The Gunners started the game brightly, claiming the lead through a Calum Chambers shot before seeing the game levelled by Sam Vokes. However, the home side remained dominant throughout the game and were rewarded with a winner when Alexis Sanchez finished off a fine team move to secure a goal and an assist on his return from injury.
When asked for his thoughts on the game, Wenger, as reported by the club’s official website, felt fairly pleased with his team’s performance, but was impressed by Burnley’s professionalism and efficiency as a team.
We needed to work. At the start it looked like it would be easy because we had a lot of the ball and good opportunities around the box.
When it came back to 1-1, it became a different game. I think we were a bit shocked and they gained belief. I saw them against Derby and I could see that this is a very efficient, strong team with no weakness. Everything they do is based on efficiency and they’ve shown that today.
In the second half, I don’t think they created a lot. They had one or two opportunities on the counter-attack but we managed to win the game and we looked quite in control at the end. We needed to keep our focus, our urgency until the last minute.
Despite Burnley putting up tough resistance, the Gunners were able to emerge as victors in the game after Chambers and Alexis scored a goal either side of half-time. Despite the pair being different types of goals, Wenger was equally happy with both of them.
I would say they are two completely different goals. One came from a build up in the final third, where we were patient and moved the ball well, with great finishing from Chambers. He’s quite a good finisher in training.
The second one was in transition, coming out quickly from the back and finishing well, with a lot of pace. They were two completely different goals.
Wenger was also full of praise for debutant Mohamed Elneny, who was a strong contender for Man of the Match after putting in a stellar performance for the Gunners.
I felt he started a bit cautious, played a bit secure. He became more adventurous, he had some good shots on goal. His mobility, his work rate was exceptional and for the rest, he needs to adjust to the power of the game in the Premier League.
This was a good welcome today and certainly he has learnt a lot today. It will take him some time to adjust to the power side of our game here, but the intelligence, the mobility and the technical level are good.
Defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin marked his return from injury with a win in the game and Wenger felt that he made the right decision to hold the youngster back from the Chelsea game so that he was fully prepared for the fixture against Burnley.
He was quite available for the Chelsea game but I thought it was a bit early. Today he looked quite comfortable and without any problems.
Chile international Alexis claimed his first goal and assist since returning from injury, yet Wenger admitted that he was hesitant to risk last season’s Arsenal Player of the Season for fear of aggravating his muscles.
[It was his first start] for eight or nine weeks. When I saw Derby against Burnley, I had a little hesitation to pick the three [Alexis, Coquelin, Elneny]. But the fact that we played at home, I thought we could manage to get away with it.
With Alexis, I was not too much worried about on the fitness front because I kept him out two weeks ago and he was already there physically. We had some worries about his muscle but today he came through well and you could see that physically, he is ready.
After impressively marking his return to fitness, Wenger believes that the 27-year-old is now more ready than ever to take the Premier League by storm once more and propel his side to further success.
He had a long rest now. When he got injured, you could see signs of fatigue. I think two months’ rest is a good winter break!
When asked about the possibility of winning the FA Cup for a third successive season, Wenger argued that his side still have a long way to go and that there are still many strong teams remaining in the competition.
First of all we have only passed two rounds. It’s a long way to go, when you look at everybody still in there. We would love to do it but there’s a long way to go. We are still in three competitions and we will try every time to get a team out to pass the round.
Finally, the Arsenal manager was asked about the situation regarding experienced right-back Mathieu Debuchy and he responded by suggesting that although no further developments have been made, the situation remains not too far from completion.
No [developments]. We will not have a long time to wait [the deadline is approaching].
