Wenger praises 'fantastic spirit’

Arsenal 3 Chelsea 2

Having drawn against Chelsea and Liverpool, as well as losing at

Manchester United, Arsene Wenger’s side finally managed to damage the

title challenge of Claudio Ranieri’s team.

Marcel Desailly’s own goal was all that separated the sides until Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Thierry Henry looked to have made sure of victory in the final 10 minutes.

However, Mario Stanic and Emmanuel Petit struck within the space of just over two minutes to ensure Arsenal a nervous finale before they confirmed an eight-point advantage over their London rivals.

Arsene Wenger insisted his Arsenal team are back on track as he hailed the winning mentality that overcame their tiredness to inflict a significant blow on title rivals Chelsea.

Wenger said he could have hardly dared to imagine that Arsenal would start the new year five points ahead of Manchester United and with their lead over Chelsea extended to eight points.

Although Arsenal are not yet back at their peak, they have taken 10 points out of 12 from their games over the festive period following their 3-2 win against the Blues.

Wenger declared: “It was a tough game but we have shown a fantastic spirit and togetherness. We needed to dig deep again to win the game but, once again, this team found the resources, even if you could see that we were jaded physically after two big games in four days on a muddy pitch.

“We won the game mentally as we really wanted to do it. I like to win games like that when you’re tired as it’s a great sign of the spirit of the players.

“These are not just great players but they are winners. They are back focused on the championship. They really want it and are really committed to it.

“One of the most important things in a season is to beat your main rivals at home. We didn’t beat Liverpool but we kept them nine points behind and it was more important to beat Chelsea.

“I’m very confident. We know we can win the title but we want to find consistency back. In my opinion, the team is back on track, focused and ready for consistency again.”

United, who scraped a late winner against Sunderland, look to be Arsenal’s main challengers, although Wenger insisted: “Manchester United are back there but it’s too far away to say it’s only a two-horse race.”

The Arsenal boss maintained that Dennis Bergkamp should be credited with the opening goal, even though the club had officially given it as an own goal to Marcel Desailly.

“It was deflected but his intention was to put it in and when you score a deflected goal, it’s the guy who shoots who gets the goal,” said Wenger.

Arsenal later extended their lead to 3-0 through goals by Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Thierry Henry, whom Wenger described as outstanding.

Chelsea fought back late on through substitute Mario Stanic and Emmanuel Petit, even if Wenger believes that David Seaman was fouled in the build-up to that final goal.

“David told me that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink put his foot on his

hand and that’s why he dropped the ball.

“The way that he explained it to me, it looks like it was a foul,” he said.

Arsenal nevertheless held on, leaving Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri praising the home side, and Henry especially, while lamenting his side’s fortunes over the festive period, with one point out of a possible nine.

“If we’d had a little luck, we could have drawn the match but the players showed great pride and fought a lot for every ball,” he added. “We have never spoken about the title. Of course, everybody wants to win it, but it’s important for us to continue with good football, although not necessarily in this way, maybe a luckier way.”

Ranieri does not believe that a knock sustained by Gianfranco Zola is too serious, although he will check the striker’s fitness again tomorrow ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough.

ARSENAL: Seaman, Cole, Campbell, Keown, Luzhny, Wiltord (Lauren 69), Silva, Vieira, Pires (van Bronckhorst 56), Bergkamp (Toure 79), Henry.

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Gallas, Desailly, Babayaro, Le Saux (Gudjohnsen 70), Petit, Lampard, De Lucas (Gronkjaer 56), Zola (Stanic 79), Hasselbaink.