Carling Cup News: Arsene Wenger persists with hard work ethic as Gunners progress to the semi-finals
Arsene Wenger has come out after his team’s two goals win over Wigan in the quarter finals of the Carling Cup and stressed that his team must keep up their hard work ethic if they are to achieve big results in the 2010-2011 season. Wenger’s
men who have had a mixed bunch of results in the month of November have come under criticism having already lost four games this season in the English Premier League. Before the quarter final match against Wigan took place, Arsene Wenger had stated his team’s
intent to capture all the available trophies by fielding his strongest side in their respective matches.
Wenger elaborated on Arsenal’s latest win by saying, "You have seen it in the Premier League, and tonight with West Ham, it can happen to Manchester United, to Chelsea and to us this season. We have to accept there are no guarantees, even
if we are in the semi-finals, that we will win the trophy. You have to fight in every single game to win."
He added, "The supporters always want more, which is completely natural. You cannot say that [a first trophy] is not important, but we should also not make an obsession of that. We want to focus on the quality of our performances, and
the rest will be the consequences of those performances. The major trophies are the Champions League and the [domestic] championship, but if we can win this as well, we will take it. We want to win trophies and be at the top, but you can only do as well as
you can.”
The Frenchman went onto say, "At the moment, we are at the end of November and are in quite a good position in all of the competitions. We are in the semi-final, and did the job on a cold night when we did not give chances away. We wanted
to qualify and give some competition to some players who needed it, so we achieved both targets."
Wenger also praised Robin Van Persie, as he said, “Robin showed his class, and still needs games because he has been out for a long time. It was positive he played for 70 minutes and let's hope he has no reaction, then he will become stronger
and stronger."
The longstanding Gunners manager also explained the situation regarding Cesc Fabregas’s injury as Arsenal enter into the month of December which holds crucial ties for them against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea. Wenger stated,
"It is impossible to say at the moment. It is not a big injury, but we have to wait. In the next three days, we will know more."
Wenger also dismissed suggestions that he will dip into the January transfer window to strengthen his squad. He said, "We made nine changes and still have players out injured or rested. I do not know where to put the players - to buy players
you have to give them a chance and we already have fantastic international players who do not get enough games."
Wigan’s manager, Roberto Martinez was complimentary of his team regardless of the fact that they lost the match. He said, "It has been a great competition for us, but today was probably a game too many. There were a couple of performances
from players like James McArthur, Ben Watson and youngster Callum Mc Manaman, which were positive, but it was a tough night."
The Spaniard concluded by stating, "Sometimes you need to earn your own luck, and I don't want us to be a team which feels sorry for ourselves. Now is one of the key moments, we need to regroup and act like men. We are short in numbers,
but not in character. It would be very easy to feel sorry for ourselves, but if we carry on working with levels have been showing, luck can change very quickly."
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