Wenger: It's down to us now

Last updated : 05 March 2002 By Nicosia Gooner

Arsene in upbeat mood
Arsene Wenger, rightly proud of the lads today, was in optimistic mood. When asked if he felt we could go on and win the title, he had this to say:

"I think we're in a very good position to do it, and it's just down to us. Of course, there's still a long way to go. But what we achieved here reinforces our belief. We were highly concentrated, sharp, determined, didn't give anything away, were very intelligent in our defending and used the ball well.

"It was very important that in the second half we didn't make any mistakes, and all the 11 players gave everything."

When asked about Dennis Bergkamp's contribution to the game, he said what we were all thinking: "If you one day put all the goals he scored together that would be a good lesson for somebody who likes fantastic goals and good enjoyment. He scores only great goals usually, and we here saw another one."

Bobby Robson meanwhile, was uncharacteristically ungracious:

"I've never written off my chances of winning the title - I've never talked about winning the title, so there's nothing to write off. All I'm saying is that we're fighting at the right end of the league.

"The players are obviously very sad, but I said 'Listen, if we'd got a point last week at Sunderland and we'd got a point today and we'd got a point at Liverpool on Wednesday we'd have picked up three points. We've already got those, so why worry? There's no need to be despondent. I'm just trying to keep the players up.

"We've lost to a very good side, a very good side - one clever goal, one goal we don't accept. We played very well in the first half. I thought we got off to a great start, showed great spirit, and the first goal was a shock and a surprise. After that, in the second half particularly they just closed shop. They know how to do it.

"They took time when they had to take time, slowed it down when they had to slow it down, took time with the throw-ins, took time with the goal kicks. It is not cheating, just clever play."