Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had words of praise for Nacho Monreal in particular following on from our semi final success over Chelsea last night.
Having taken a two one victory having come from behind in the game at the Emirates Stadium with our goals coming from a Rudiger own goal and a Granit Xhaka effort, Wenger told the Official Site following the game that Chelsea certainly made us work for our fourth domestic cup final in five years, but he felt second half we had more than deserved it overall.
‘They made us work for it, I felt that in the first half there were psychological and tactical reasons for us not expressing the quality of our game. We rectified that at half-time and in the second half we won the ball higher up, we could then get our midfield, who is technically very talent into the game and then we controlled the game. I felt in the second half basically we looked always like we could win this game and that`s what we did . In the end I would say it was a deflected goal in the first and then second one was as well a bit lucky, but I felt overall we controlled the game in the second half.’
Asked about Monreal’s performance and how underrated he is in the game, the Frenchman went on to say.
‘For me he gets very much credit, but maybe there`s a bit less focus on him because he is not a candidate for the English national team and doesn`t make many statements or maybe not enough on social networks, but our job is about performance and I like the world of silent leaders and that is when people come, they perform, they don`t talk, they go home and they come in the next morning, train well and then the next day they do it again. They are the real leaders in the teams.’
Having booked our place in the final, Wenger went on to say that there was an element of unfinished business for him.
‘It is unfinished business yes, because we didn`t win, but we are again at Wembley and many times we were there, but we are in the final again and we can take our fans there. That`s what you want, but of course now we are in it we want to win it and we will play against a very strong side, so it could become a very interesting game.’
He went on to add.
‘Look, we want to win the next game. Let`s be realistic. It`s a great, satisfying night for us because we managed to beat a strong team and I felt that in January we paid a heavy price for uncertainty that was existing in our dressing room. Now we are back with more clarity, we know what we have to do and we can focus on our game and so we had difficult months, but we responded well.’
Many have already attributed that ‘uncertainty’ to the ongoing Alexis Sanchez saga before he moved on and there’s probably a fair sense of truth in making that assumption.
