Mohamed Elneny says he’s pleased Arsene Wenger handed him his first Premier League start against Sp*rs and believes his performance repaid the trust of the manager.
Advertisement
Hull City boss Steve Bruce has described the continued criticism of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger as “appalling” ahead of the club’s FA Cup tie.
And, following Saturday’s draw with Tottenham in a thrilling north London derby, the Gunners are now eight points adrift of leaders Leicester City with nine games remaining.
Wenger though is adamant that the league title race is far from over, having inflicted two of only three defeats on Leicester this season.
“Look, we had no choice because the next round in the FA Cup is next Saturday”, he said of the replay being arranged for Tuesday.
The Frenchman, who took charge in 1996, has become the longest-serving manager in Europe after Ronnie McFall resigned after 29 years in charge of Northern Irish side Portadown. We have beaten twice Leicester so we have done our job against them.
“But I’m more anxious that it can get to the players’ confidence level, but I feel we have shown a great response as a team that we can deal with that, we analyse that well”.
“I have always the same pressure which is the same pressure I apply to myself”, he said.
“The priority is the league and where we want to get to”, he said at his pre-match media conference. But that doesn’t change the pressure – the real pressure comes from your desire to win the next game. Our spirit was questioned against Swansea and I think you should watch the game again and you might change your opinion.
“From inside the game you’re not going to hear people criticising him because when you’re in management as long as he’s been and what he’s achieved, who is anyone to criticise him?” “I will have to but I’m not so much concerned about replacing one player with another one”. There are more people talking, more opinions. “That’s the only one that matters, really”.
“I have to rotate a bit and keep the balance in the team”.
Advertisement
In other Arsenal team news, Laurent Koscielny has been ruled out of the Hall clash after failing to recover from a calf injury, and Wenger admits he will ring the changes as he makes full use of his whole squad during a gruelling period.
