... the fact is that the '18 year-old kid' he speaks of puts our 'Russian captain' to shame in terms of effort. The Ox deserves the shirt.
Here's what was said:
"We had a difficult first half, we were a bit nervous due to the fact we lost the last two games and we played under pressure today.
"In the second half we had chances to win the game, we made a defensive mistake on the second goal but we had a good second half and at 1-1 it looked like it would be us to win."
"We are in a fighting position, let's be inspired by the second half today."
"I can understand that the fans are upset about the substitution, especially when it doesn't work, but he (Oxlade-Chamberlain) had started to fatigue. He was sick in the week. Arshavin is captain of the Russia national team.
"You have an 18-year-old kid making his first Premier League start and a player who's captain of his country and they are querying the substitution? Let's be serious.
"I've been a manager for 30 years and have made 50,000 substitutions. I do not have to justify every decision I make to you. I stand up for it."
"It leaves us in a very difficult position. It's a game we couldn't afford to lose," he said.