Wenger hails confidence-boosting win

24 October 2010 20:03
Arsene Wenger feels the 3-0 win at Manchester City will give Arsenal a confidence boost after the Gunners "completely dominated" thier hosts.[LNB] The Gunners have gone through a sticky spell in the past month with Premier League defeats at the hands of West Brom and Chelsea.[LNB]They responded by winning at Birmingham last week and, following a Champions League thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday, Wenger feels his team are now firing again.[LNB]Arsenal overwhelmed 10-man City at Eastlands on Sunday with goals from Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner and their performance contradicted recent criticism of their record against supposed title rivals.[LNB]Wenger said: "For us it was important to us to get a win in a big place, to strengthen belief of the squad and continue our march forward.[LNB]"I think we did it today with calm intelligence and overall the needed performance to play against 10 men.[LNB]"I think collectively we completely dominated the game.[LNB]"I hope that will give us the belief and confidence to take into other games."[LNB]The key moment of the game was the fifth-minute sending off of Dedryck Boyata for bringing down Marouane Chamakh when clear on goal.[LNB]Wenger said: "It looked to me that it was a sending off from the bench and the referee had no option.[LNB]"After the sending off it became electric and we got some yellow cards quickly.[LNB]"It was important that we did not get a second yellow and I asked the players at half-time to focus on playing in a positive way and to try to score a second goal, to focus on playing football and not just defending our advantage."[LNB]City had a number of good opportunities but the much-maligned Lukasz Fabianski had a fine game in the Arsenal goal, producing two particularly good saves from David Silva.[LNB]"From game to game, he shows what we see in training," Wenger said. "Sometimes in our job you have to be steady and fight against opinions.[LNB]"It is easier when you know a player has the talent and I believe he has the talent."[LNB]When asked if Fabianski could retain his place when Manuel Almunia is fit again, Wenger added: "You always want the freedom to change when needed but looking at his performances at the moment you cannot fault him at all."[LNB]City boss Roberto Mancini felt the sending off was harsh and his team would have won otherwise.[LNB]The result saw City drop from second to fourth in the table with both Arsenal and Manchester United passing them today. Mancini said: "I think against Arsenal it is difficult to play 11 versus 11.[LNB]"Ten against 11 is worse, but it is my opinion that we if played 11 against 11 we would have won this game.[LNB]"I am very proud of my players because I think they played very well.[LNB]"They tried always to score, always to defend very well.[LNB]"I think they showed we are one of the best teams in the Premier League."[LNB]On Boyata's red card, he said: "I do not agree with the referee.[LNB]"I thought the rule is always the last man, if there is a clear opportunity to score a goal, it is a red card.[LNB]"But I think when Chamakh touched the ball, the ball was probably going out or on the way to the keeper."[LNB]Mancini played down fears that talisman Carlos Tevez, who was substituted early in the second half, had suffered a serious injury.[LNB]"He took a knock on his muscle in the first half in a tackle but it is not serious," he said.

Source: Team_Talk