Wenger – Alexis and Koscielny made the difference against Southampton

Arsene Wenger must have been massively relieved to see Alexis Sanchez score the winning goal in the 88th minute last night against Southampton, and although Wenger admitted that the Chilean looked tired after his third full game in the last seven days, his ability to fight to the end won us the game.

Le Prof said after the game: “He (Sanchez) was one of the players who had to dig in today but he still has such a desire to fight, which is why he always finds something special to get the goal. It’s difficult to find examples of people who have settled so quickly. My memory is not perfect but quicker, you cannot. We are in December and he arrived in July – when you look at the number of goals and the impact he has on the team, it’s fabulous.”

This was not only Arsenal’s third win in a row, but also our third clean sheet (Thanks Emilio!) and Wenger reserved extra praise for Laurent Koscielny, but was wary of saying the team had finally turned the corner. He continued: “I’m a bit cautious but we have the right attitude, we have a good solidarity in the team, a good focus, and that’s a good basis. Laurent Koscielny was absolutely outstanding today and he contributes to stabilise our defence. We missed him for nearly two months and it’s important.”

Then our manager was asked if this win would have settled the nerves, and he responded: “Yes but it’s a long way to go. For us it was important to win today because we lost our last home game and you could see that the confidence within the crowd was a bit nervous so it was important to win the game.”

It certainly was important for him AND the fans. We are now within three points of the Saints and closing fast.

Let’s keep the momentum going. (And Koscielny out of the treatment room!) COYG!