Wenger pays tribute to ‘dominant’ Arsenal

ARSENE WENGER felt the manner of his Arsenal side’s victory at Eastlands yesterday suggests they are finally coming of age.

The Gunners have not won any silverware since 2005 but Wenger thinks his young players are beginning to show what they are capable of after coming away from a match against Chelsea, Manchester United or City with a victory for the first time in 10 attempts.

After Dedryck Boyata’s fifth-minute red card, goals from Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner earned the win, with Cesc Fabregas even having a penalty saved by Joe Hart.

It was all the more impressive due to the circumstances with a series of horrid challenges flying in earning Arsenal four cautions before the break, a tally they did not add to after half time.

Wenger said: “I’m very pleased because they looked like they have matured,” Wenger said.

“We’ve matured in the sense of negotiating the difficulties of the game in an intelligent way.

“That means not getting a red card, keeping the ball well, being patient when it was needed. Collectively, we completely dominated the game.

“It was a good performance maybe a little bit under special circumstances. It was important to get a win in a big place, to strengthen the belief of the squad and continue our march forward.

“We were calm and showed intelligence and put in the performance we needed to put in against 10 men.”

Fabregas claimed that such was Arsenal’s dominant performance that they would have beaten even if their opponents had 15 players on the pitch.

He said: “Even if they were 15 and we were 11 we would still go and win. We always want to go forward and create chances but the way we played, we were very difficult to stop. I think we were fantastic.

“I think we played some outstanding football and it’s difficult to stop a side when they play at that tempo.”

Roberto Mancini, who lost Carlos Tevez to a thigh problem in the second period, insisted he has never been more confident about his side’s prospects despite their defeat.

He also maintained that Boyata should not have been sent off by Mark Clattenburg.

He said: “They showed that they are one of the best teams in the Premier League. I’m very proud of my players because they played very well. If it was 11 against 11 we would have won this game.

“Today the striker touched the ball but it was probably going to the goalkeeper and the referee sent him off. I don’t agree with the referee.”

City may find themselves in trouble with the FA after a bottle was thrown at Arsenal’s Nasri, just weeks after a similar incident involving El-Hadji Diouf at Eastlands.