Arsene Wenger let his feelings be known regarding what he felt post their derby defeat to Spurs at White Hart Lane on Saturday. There was not much criticism of The Gunner’s play, but a lot of praise, for the way that Tottenham performed in the second half. Though Wenger did acknowledge the loss as a big one, he pointed out the return of Alexis Sanchez, to the squad, who’s high work-rate they missed this weekend. Jack Wilshire has also returned to training, which would be a huge boost for The Gunners despite the fact that Alex Oxlade Chamberlain would be out for another two weeks at least. The North London side face Leicester City on Tuesday evening, who have been quite inconsistent on their return to the Premier League.
As a good gesture, the French manager also urged Leicester to stick with their current manager Nigel Pearson, before pointing out what his side to need to do, post Saturday’s defeat. Wenger said,
“You focus on how you can put your team in a position to respond well and quickly.”
“This is a very important period.”
When asked questions about the derby defeat which took Spurs above Arsenal in the points table and reports about a crisis after the game, he added,
“We had a very strong run before Saturday so we just want to continue that. We need to respond strongly.
“We have to deal with our performances. The criticism is always there. We have to focus on our performances.”
“I don’t take criticism personally. What I take personally is losing games.”
“We have a good opportunity to show that we have the strength and quality to deal with pressure.”
“The spirit is good, I’m sure we can come back well.”
“The fact is we lost a game and we cannot deny that.
“But overall there’s a long way to go, so I believe just keep going and recover, show quickly a strong response on Tuesday and then we see where we stand after that. It’s not the first time we lose a game, but how we bounce back is to take the information from what we got at Tottenham and respond very quickly.”