Wenger: 'We enjoyed what we were doing'
Arsenal 7-0 Slavia Prague
Champions League Group Stage
Arsenal Stadium
Tue, Oct 23, 2007, 7.45pm
On the performance...
"I feel that they have shown tonight that the team is improving and what I like is that we played at a good tempo, were very creative and we enjoyed what we did. 3-0 at half-time we could have cooled the game down but we kept going and I think the players enjoy the way they play and that is why they continue to play at the high tempo. It is a joy to watch. Overall there is a happiness in the team to play together, to play a mobile, technical game and we certainly did that well tonight. We were clinical, but maybe we did overplay at times in the game. I know it is part of the game as well, when you are six up.
"What is important tonight is to praise the players that have played well tonight. The rest may be interesting to the papers but not to us. What is important that the 60,000 people who come here see good football and that is what is important."
On Theo Walcott...
"I felt it took him a while to get into the game but once he scored the goal, you saw him much more especially when the space opened up behind them. His pace and the fact that he is clinical in front of goal - especially his second goal, even the first one he didn't panic and the second he was clinical - showed.
"There was a touch of Thierry Henry about the second goal. He was calm, he didn't panic in front of goal and he is a real finisher. He has improved a lot because he works in training. The first quality is to be composed and not rush your decisions in front of goal. Some people have that and some people don't have that.
"I believe he has the talent because that is why he is at Arsenal Football Club. The problem is not to hurry him too much. I am convinced he has the talent and he has good ingredients in him. He is intelligent and has fantastic pace. His technique is improving but we must be patient.
"When you go from a young promising player into a world of men you discover suddenly that the world is not like everybody had described it to you. The world of a football player is not as ideal as you dream it when you are 15-years-old because you have to cope with all kinds of difficulties and then you have to digest it because if you're a young kid of 15/16 you think everybody loves you and that football is an ideal world, and then you come into a fierce competition. It is like that all over the world. It is part of the game and you have to digest that.
"If you look across the country you say you don't have many strikers but he is one of them. You always accuse us of not producing enough English players but he is here. We bought him up from Division One."
On Jens Lehmann...
"There is no purpose to humiliate anybody. I respect him, and I have said it many times, that I respect him a lot. That is how he experiences things but that is not my purpose [to humiliate him] at all. I will chat with him about it - I don't know when or why that came out but we will chat.
"There is fierce competition in every position at all the big clubs and once the team comes out the competition has to stop. That is part of our job. We are in a job where competition exists inside and outside."
On continuing to improve...
"I still think there is more to come from this team. Can we keep humility, keep our feet on the ground and continue to enjoy what we do? We can keep giving a lot because are have some very young players. We have seen some great performances tonight but still everyone is improving.
"Just to remind you [the press] and everybody else that two months ago I was crazy not to buy players and we not even rated to be in the top seven. I know how football is. We have no reason to be carried away, because now the same people will say we are going to win the European Cup that said we were going to finish fifteenth a few months ago. We have to stay realistic and prepare for the next game and try to win it to show that we can win it."
On enjoying football...
"I feel football is a pleasure to play and maybe you realise that when you finish your career and every minute you spend not having enjoyed those minutes you played you will regret it. I would like my players to come out of the scene and think 'we played every minute of our season fully trying to enjoy it'. Of course sometimes that is not possible, but to come out and bore yourself and get the fans bored, that is not our purpose."
On emulating the Invincibles...
"It's too early to say. I feel in the next month we will know more about that because I have seen that in the next 10 games we play 8 times away. The signs are encouraging and of course we start on Sunday with a big game. I am confident but it is too early to think about that."
[ Tuesday, October 23, 2007]
