He said: “Garry Monk surprised me as he had done a good job a year ago”. The win preserved Arsenal’s superb record in the Champions League, having now qualified for the competition’s second stage for the 16th time in succession.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has claimed that Olivier Giroud is one of the “best strikers in Europe”. We played Monaco past year and we thought it would be a bit easier maybe, and it was not the case, so whoever we play we will give 100%.
Giroud’s response has drawn praise from Flamini, who says competition for places is a fact of life at a big club.
Jose Mourinho clawed himself back from the brink of the sack as Chelsea swept into the Champions League last 16 with a 2-0 win over Porto on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old has come under enormous scrutiny ever since he moved to Arsenal in 2012 and the jury is still out about his potency in front of goal. He’s in possession of the shirt and he has the chance to prove people wrong.
“This kind of performance, in a very heated atmosphere, showed we have character”.
I told you beforehand that it would be the “greatest escape”.
“Now we need to focus again on the Premier League and we are in a strong position and we need to move from competition to another with the same level of performance and focus”.
Omar Elabdellaoui tried to make a sliding intervention to block Nacho Monreal’s goalbound shot, but the ball instead struck the Norwegian’s outstretched arm and Giroud calmly tucked away the resultant spot-kick to seal his hat-trick. We played against a hard team who were well organised and good on the break, so all the ingredients were there for a disappointing result.
“Or they can play together well, what I did on Wednesday night, so in some games I will play Olivier and Theo together”. You’ve seen teams struggle when they should go through and should be winning.
The French striker was rightly delighted with his and the team’s performance in Athens and is now targeting a quarter-final place “at least”. “That’s what you want going into the Christmas period because the Christmas period in the Premier League really maps out where you are going to be at the end of the season”.
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The squad returned from a successful Champions League game in Olympiacos early on Thursday morning but all are in contention to play at Villa Park.
