“We told Francis Coquelin at half-time because he had yellow already but (Tottenham midfielder) Eric Dier deserved a second yellow as well and that could have changed the game”.
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Spurs moved 2-1 ahead through efforts from Toby Alderweireld and Harry Kane before Alexis Sanchez popped up to rescue a point for the 10-man visiting side with 14 minutes remaining.
Asked if he thought this was Arsenal’s best shot at winning a Premier League title, Wenger said, “Maybe, yes”.
“It was a mistake”. “He wanted to do well and mistimed his tackle and got sent off”. He made a mistake and he has to quickly learn from that because at a top level it is full commitment and 100% in all the duels in a controlled way.
Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck has revealed that he is still working his way up to 100% fitness following his recent return from a long-term injury.
“When you have a yellow card he made a mistake to go down on the tackle”.
Kane was inches wide with another chance as Tottenham went for a third but the hosts were stunned when Bellerin expertly picked out the otherwise anonymous Sanchez who beat Lloris with clinical precision to end a run of 11 league games without a goal.
Lukaku then had a penalty saved and West Ham fought back through goals by Michael Antonio, Diafro Sakho and Dimitri Payet. I feel we have shown a great response as a team that we can deal with that. That’s the regret of the day but overall I’m very proud of the players and of their performance.
“We’ll stay positive and keep doing what we’re doing”.
“I think we have to take encouragement from our performance today and we have to produce that until the end of the season then we might have a chance”, he further added.
However Francis Coquelin would be sent off and reduced Arsenal to 10 men early in the second half.
Tottenham looked to have the momentum and the game won when Kane completed his side’s turnaround and Pochettino admits his team should have held on.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino (R). “I think all the way through we have had the belief that we have the players going forward to do something special”. “We have been questioned to the extreme because from being 1-0 up and feeling comfortable in the game, we were suddenly 2-1 down and down to 10 men”, Wenger was quoted as saying by the official Arsenal website.
