Wenger hails his battlers
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Arsene Wenger hailed his side's never say die attitude as they came from behind to beat Manchester United 2-1.
Arsenal looked to be heading to defeat courtesy of Wayne Rooney's second half goal, but late strikes from Robin van Persie and Thierry Henry stole an unlikely victory for Wenger's men to keep the title race wide open.
Wenger was delighted with his side's fighting spirit as they kept their own slim championship hopes alive.
"We won by never giving up," Wenger told Sky Sports.
"I felt we started nervously and Manchester United were mature and played with great belief.
"We are on the way up, we knew in the second half we could have a good go at them and take over, but unexpectedly they scored with the only chance they had in the second half and then it was a question of strength and resilience.
"I've got some lions in that team and they are getting stronger and stronger with every game.
"I felt that for a while (his side are getting stronger). We could mix up our game, we needed to be direct and we went direct sometimes in my taste a little too much.
"We mixed our game well in the second half and never gave up and in the end we have such a spirit in squad for a while now and that took over."
Wenger also felt United contributed to their own downfall by time-wasting at times.
"I felt as well when United were 1-0 up they tried too much to get time but it turned against them because they lost their game," added Wenger.
Wenger also revealed he intended not to use van Persie against United because he was injured, but admitted he had no other choice as his side chased a goal in the closing stages.
"He (van Persie) can score goals, he went really for it," said Wenger.
"But he had ankle problem before the game and I was determined to clear that and not to bring him on today but we were in a situation where we needed three or four strikers and in the end we played with five."
Wenger was also happy with the contribution of Henry despite the Arsenal captain being on the periphery for long periods of the game.
When asked if Henry had been anonymous before his goal Wenger said: "Anonymous is a big word because I felt it was a difficult game for strikers.
"He contributed a lot physically to the defensive work of the team and made a lot of runs where the ball did not always arrive so I would not agree with that." -
arsenal played well
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Originally posted by anhydrouscoppersulphate:arsenal played well
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it was more of manu playing badly after scoring