• Premier League, What They Said

Arsenal are not a one-man team - Wenger

ESPN staff
October 23, 2011
Substitute Robin van Persie scored twice against Stoke © PA Photos
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Arsene Wenger insisted Arsenal were not a one-man team after Robin van Persie came off the bench to fire the Gunners to a 3-1 win over Stoke.

"When you want to be a team with quality you always have a player who stands out and who gets on the end of things. We had Thierry Henry before. Robin has exceptional quality and so you get these questions."

Wenger revealed Van Persie was struggling with his fitness on Saturday as the Arsenal boss made the decision to leave the Netherlands international on the bench.

"He had muscular tightness and I took 19 players [in training] yesterday because I was not sure whether to involve him on the team sheet. He made a check this morning and he was medically alright to be on the bench. Before you leave him out you always think 15 times 'should I really do it or not?' but if you look at the number of games he plays and the history he has, you are a bit cautious."

For Stoke, it meant a third defeat of the season, all of which have come after a Europa League outing on the previous Thursday. Potters boss Tony Pulis admitted the introduction of Van Persie was critical.

"Van Persie has come on and changed the game. We looked comfortable until he came on, I don't think Asmir [Begovic] had had a shot to save up until then. The lads worked hard. We've lost three games this season all on the back of Europa games, but if you look at our running stats they aren't far off when we've been winning games.''

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini made the brave decision to start Mario Balotelli less than 48 hours after the striker set his house on fire by letting off fireworks in his bathroom.

"I hope for him, and for football in general, that the day will arrive when Mario changes his mind completely because after this he will become one of the best three players in the world like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The supporters like Mario because he is crazy. I love him as a guy. I don't know what has happened (with the fire). The only important thing is that Mario and his friend were OK."

Blackburn's defeat to Tottenham will have done nothing to ease the pressure on Steve Kean, but the Rovers boss insisted there was still reason to be cheerful.

"Spurs scored against the run of play. I think that the way we started the game was excellent. We created so many chances, we created problems for Spurs from set-plays, we had possession and we went wide well. What we now have got to do is analyse the game and pat ourselves on the back for our performance today."

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp was also quick to defend his opposite number following Spurs' narrow 2-1 win at Ewood Park.

"We were 1-0 up and we were in control of the game, and suddenly they [Blackburn] got the equaliser and came at us strongly. In the end we were hanging out there as they put us under severe pressure. I saw [the supporters] were demonstrating but I don't know what they were demonstrating against. The players couldn't have given anything more than they did today."

David Moyes was relieved Everton ended their losing streak at Fulham but refused to look too far ahead.

"I don't think we'll be thinking too far ahead. If you look back to previous seasons, we've tended to get better as the season's gone on so I'm hoping that will be the case again. What we needed to do from this period was find a win from somewhere. We've had a really difficult last three games, with Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea, and we have got Manchester United next week. Arguably three of those will realistically be up there at the top of the league and we had Liverpool in there as well. Four of the last five games have been against the top of the top."

While Moyes was relieved, Fulham manager Martin Jol was left bemoaning defensive lapses.

"We really thought we could have a result from today but we didn't. Bobby [Zamora] had the winning goal on his foot in the 89th minute and then we conceded a goal in the 90 minute. There's nothing you can say to Bobby. He's sick and we're all sick. They play together and they lost together. We should have won this game and we didn't. Today should have been different."

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