Arsene Wenger has lauded the mental desire his Arsenal players showed to fight back and earn all three points against Leicester City today with a 2-1 win.
The league leaders took the lead at the Emirates just before half time after Jamie Vardy converted a penalty, which he earned after Nacho Monreal fouled him inside the box, and Leicester went into the break in an upbeat mood.
Arsenal came out all guns blazing, and after Danny Simpson was sent off for picking up a second yellow card, the home side mounted immense pressure on Leicester’s ten men. It finally paid off after Theo Walcott scored the equaliser in the 70th minute, but the real hammer blow came when Danny Welbeck snatched the win in the 95th with a headed goal.
Wenger was ecstatic to see his team get all three points from such a crucial game, and feels it was a huge mental test for his team as Leicester are known for their good defensive work after taking leads.
He believes their second half performance showed that his team had the mental desire to get themselves back into the game, and finally retrieving all three points in the dying moments at home.
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When asked about his feelings after the game, the Frenchman was quoted as saying by the club’s official website: “It was happiness, because I think it was a very high level of energy in the game.
“We put the intensity in from the first to the last minute. It was as well a mental test for us, because to find yourself down 1-0 at half-time to a team who defends so well, you need to keep going in your head.
“And we came back in the second half with relentless energy. And we took as well all the risks to win it. We knew a draw was not good enough. In the end it paid off, down to the mental desire of the team to give absolutely everything to win it.”
Arsenal’s attention will turn toward the FA Cup next weekend, when they host Hull City in the fifth round of the competition at the Emirates.
