“We played against an Olympiacos side who defended really well, but there was a bit of bad luck as well because they had four shots on target and they scored three goals, and that happens once out of 100 games in the Champions League“.
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Attention then shifted to this weekend’s crunch-tie with current Premier League leaders Manchester United, who have bounced-back from criticisms in the early stages of the season to win their last four domestic matches. “He is a team player and not many players are actually team players”.
Both signings allowed him to boast that he was buying players for Manchester United’s next manager and I would put that alongside his initial assertion that it would take three months for his new squad to learn the van Gaal way.
But Wenger is not prepared to admit defeat in Europe and believes his side can gain a title advantage at home by beating United. “They don’t complain about the style of play or anything, and that is because we have improved”.
Manchester United defender Chris Smalling, 25, has credited his recent form to manager Louis van Gaal’s intensive training methods, according to the Daily Express.
But Wenger would point to Arsenal’s successive FA Cup triumphs as evidence to the contrary and having seen his team end Leicester City’s unbeaten start to the season with a 5-2 win at the King Power Stadium last weekend, he is confident of a first home win over United since May 2011.
That match, while lower down the table and lacking the star power of Arsenal-Manchester United, looks like one that will have significantly more excitement and competitive meaning in it. So do yourself a favor: don’t watch a game with nothing on the line between two teams that matter less than you think they do right now.
“I think you have to believe always in this (winning the title) and I think the balance in our selection is much better than past year”, he said.
Whatever happens, though, he says he would never want to change his mind and stay on in the style of Sir Alex Ferguson, who said he’d retire in 2002 but then stayed in the Man United hot-seat for another decade. “We criticise people without any kind of problems and no prima donnas crying”, Mourinho said ahead of Saturday’s game against Southampton.
“We are still in the Champions League, we are not out of the Champions League“. “Perhaps six or seven years ago there were games where you knew you would win”. “This is my fourth season of going to Goodison Park and we’ve played well there”, he said.
“What is boring is everybody says absolutely the same, that is for me boring”.
“When we went top we knew we had a few tough games coming up, so we have to be focused”.
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“You come to the game, you judge the game and you assess if I am right or wrong”.
