Wenger not carried away by epic recovery
Not that Arsene Wenger totally saw it like that. Although he initially described his team’s remarkable 7-5 win over Reading as a “miracle”, the Arsenal manager was a little more reserved later on. Despite a game so high on goals and drama, he wasn’t too high on emotion.
“We went from disaster to, I must say at least at some stage, pride because we at least came back in the second half with a decent performance. We had just hope but it didn’t look like we would go through. At least in the second half, we got our disastrous first half out of the system. Then, once it was 4-4, I think it looked like we would be the winner of the game. Reading had given a lot, and [were] mentally down, and in extra-time, the maximum they could have got was a penalty shoot-out.”
Wenger also insisted that he always believed a comeback was on... once Theo Walcott had scored Arsenal’s first.
“At 4-1, I thought yes. In the second half we played 4-2-4, basically 4-1-5 because [Thomas] Eisfield is an offensive midfielder. We created many chances and, from then on, I always had hope we could come back.”
Hope, however, was at a premium when Arsenal went 4-0 down.
“I didn’t feel great. I just thought ‘what can I do about that?’ I started to think about my half-time speech. It was not difficult to find an inspiration because there was enough to talk about.
“Overall, I just felt sorry for our fans because, at 2-0, they stayed behind the team. At 3-0, they stayed behind the team. At 4-0, they stayed behind the team. I would like to give them credit.”
At least, most of them stayed. A minority left early and Wenger said “I give them less credit”.
He was also a little less willing to outright describe the comeback as one his greatest victories.
“Maybe, yes. I don’t know. It is not one of our priorities but had we gone out – the way we could have gone out in the first half – that would not have been one of my proudest moments at the club.
“I’m very happy that we responded the way we did in the second.”
If the result wasn’t the greatest comeback in Arsenal’s history, though, what was? A few games provide competition.
Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham, Premier League, 26 February 2012
The key to this was that it wasn’t just a swing in the most important of games to the club but, a swing in the entire season. After 40 minutes, Arsenal weren’t only 2-0 down, they were in danger of going 13 points behind Spurs in the race for the top four.
Instead, thanks to Bacary Sagna, Robin Van Persie, Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott, Wenger’s side roared back for a remarkable recovery.
Bolton 2-3 Arsenal, Premier League, 29 March 2008
In the season that saw Arsenal’s last genuine title challenge, it also saw the kind of deflating run that has come to typify the team since. It could, however, have gone so much worse.
After a five-game winless streak that effectively ended their title challenge, Arsenal were 2-0 down and one man down at a stadium in which they hadn’t won since 2002.
Despite Abou Diaby’s red card, though, the club rallied for William Gallas to pull a goal back on the hour and Robin van Persie to equalise on 69. An imperfect run of form, then, had the most perfect end as CescFabregas won it in the very last minute.
Tottenham Hotspur 4-4 Arsenal,Premier League, 6 October 1962
Given that Spurs had won the double in dynamic fashion only the year before, there was no doubt about who the top team in North London were at this point. On this autumn day, though, Arsenal started to upset the order as well as the match. Within 26 minutes, Tottenham had torn into 3-0 lead. In short, they had scored as many goals in one game than David Court had made appearances in his entire Arsenal career. On his third, though, the 18-year-old struck twice to bring it back to 3-2. Although Spurs again extended the lead to 4-2, Arsenal pulled it back again through John MacLeod and Geoff Strong.
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