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Wenger Talks Burnley & Ozil

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Manager Arsene Wenger has been giving his thoughts over the last gasp victory Arsenal took over Burnley and explained why Mesut Ozil didn’t make the squad.

Taking a one nil victory following a 92nd minute penalty from Alexis Sanchez at Turf Moor, Wenger told the Official Site as he met with the media post game that he felt the players deserved credit for their efforts to bounce back from defeat to Koln in our previous game.

Again a big decision swung the game, as despite dominating Arsenal had the same number of shots on target across the match and Wenger felt it was the right decision.

‘From outside, it looked like a clear penalty. I felt there was one on Bellerin as well. I can understand that Burnley are disappointed with that, but from outside it looked like a penalty. When you speak to him (Ramsey), he didn`t throw himself on the ground. He said he wanted to go back and flick on the ball. He was pushed in the back and he has a problem in his neck from the push. He said it was a very strong push.’

With Burnley clearly starting the better, the gaffer had praise for the way the side started to get on top but obviously he’d have liked a far better clinical edge to have been shown, but again he credited the efforts of our hosts.

‘I felt we played a bit slowly in the first half but in the second half our pace was much better, even if we missed the final ball. Is that down to us not being able to find the right ball or because of them defending very well? What is for sure is that they defend very well, they are very well organised and they are very clever, very clever, very direct as well. You understand when you play against them, why they have 22 points.’

Wenger went on to add.

‘In the first half it was a very even game with them looking a bit sharper than us. It took us a while to get into the pace of the game. We were more decisive on 50:50s in the second half. In the second half I felt it was all us and they had many more problems coming out. We made some changes but we also pushed ourselves a bit higher up. For us, after the win against Tottenham, it was very important to go away from home and play a very difficult game and win it. That`s what we did. For the belief of the team, it`s a very important win.’

Before moving onto Ozil’s omission despite him travelling with the group, he added about the game.

‘We kept a clean sheet and they were really up for it, Burnley. We won 1-0, but I`d like to congratulate our three centre-backs again today, because they did a remarkable job. I give us a merit today because we didn`t concede a goal. Our defence worked well again and we were relentless in the second half. We kept our heads and in the end we got the penalty that we wanted. The first half was an even game but in the second half it was all us.’

Adding.

‘We changed our organisation a bit at half-time and I told the players that we were at 80 per cent of what we could do. We had to get more out of ourselves in the second half and I think we did that much better. I thought the draw would have been a disappointment today, even if Burnley are a very good team. You understand, when you look at them, why they are a very good team and why they have 22 points. We were on a high after Tottenham and I think it was important to push on again to strengthen the belief and the ambition of the team.’

So to our German.

‘I haven`t even seen him, the doctor came to see me and said we had to travel him back today. He was in the hotel with us. He travelled up and travelled back and we brought Maitland-Niles, who arrived at 1pm because we were only 17 without Mesut. Will he be available for Wednesday? Certainly he will be short for Wednesday.’

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