• Premier League

What They Said: Henry's a legend - Wenger

ESPN staff
February 11, 2012
Thierry Henry scored Arsenal's winner at Sunderland © PA Photos
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hailed Thierry Henry as a "legend" after his late winner in the 2-1 win against Sunderland: "He finished the story of the legend today in the championship. I hope he will add some in the Champions League on Wednesday,'' Wenger said. "But certainly, he got us the three points in a very difficult game. I felt it might haunt me because he goes again and people will say, 'Why did he not stay?' It shows you as well that they never lose it, these players, exceptional talent survives."

Wenger refused to rule out Henry returning to Arsenal on a similar deal next year. "We will see. Maybe he might want to stop at some stage as well.''

Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill tasted defeat for just the third time during his 14 games at the Stadium of Light: "It was obviously disappointing to lose the goal, but I have no complaints about the team whatsoever," said the Ulsterman. "The last couple of months, their heart and soul has gone into the game. We are just obviously disappointed to lose from a winning position.''

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish refused to criticise referee Phil Dowd after Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Manchester United. Luis Suarez was brought down by Rio Ferdinand when clean through on the stroke of half-time with the scores at 0-0, but Dalglish did not want to claim a red card: "If you've got 24 cameras and 34 repeats and you can't see what happened, there's no chance of me giving a valid opinion," commented the Scot. "The two goals coming as quickly as they did made it very difficult for us to get something out of the game. Overall they were the better side, but the two goals gave us a mountain to climb."

Dalglish also said critics of Suarez, who appeared to refuse to shake Patrice Evra's hand prior to kick-off, were "bang out of order". Sir Alex Ferguson labelled Suarez "a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club".

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas described Chelsea's performance in their 2-0 defeat away to Everton as one of their worst of the season: "I think today was one of our worst games of the season, if not the worst," Villas-Boas said. "In our performance today we are short of anything positive. It is a difficult day for us, we take out a lot of negatives from this game.''

Villas-Boas ruled out the possibility that Roman Abramovich's midweek presence at the training ground had any bearing on the result: "You don't expect any effects from that. It is part of the job. At the moment we are sitting fifth in the league and it is not enough for us."

Everton boss David Moyes saw his charges secure a home Premier League win against Chelsea for the third season in a row, and he hailed the performance of Steven Pienaar: "That was a great result for us. There were good parts of the performance as well but the strange thing is I think we can play much better," said the Scot. "I think we will play better once we get more confidence as the wins take us along. [Steven] got clapped by everyone at the end, some of the stuff he did was terrific. I said to him at the end it was like he had never been away. Sometimes clubs just fit players and maybe that is the case. Maybe this just suits him.''

Harry Redknapp promised not to abandon Tottenham after watching his side beat Newcastle 5-0, and the potential next England manager revealed the secret to getting the best out of Emmanuel Adebayor, who created four goals and scored one: "Adebayor was on fire in that first 20 minutes," Redknapp said. "He's not an confident as people think he is, I've realised that, he needs picking up all the time, he needs to be told what a good player he is. He's not the lad people think he is. People think he's cocky, he's not at all."

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is convinced his players can battle their way to safety after a crucial 2-1 away win at Bolton Wanderers, praising the attitude of James McArthur, who scored what proved to be the winning goal: "We need as many players like James from now until the end of the season. There are many things we can control but you need the belief, arrogance and bravery in your make-up," Martinez said. "It's easy to play when you're in the top six but in our position you need an extra bit of mettle. We know what it takes and we will fight with our lives to carry on in this league.''

Wayne Rooney scored twice for Manchester United in their 2-1 victory over Liverpool © Getty Images
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Bolton manager Owen Coyle was critical of his team's first-half performance and cursed the defending which led to Wigan's opening goal: "It's a game we wanted to win to move us up the league and we've let the opportunity pass us by. In our position you can't let chances slip away when there are achievable points. Our first-half performance was not good enough but after the second-half performance I have no doubt we should have taken a minimum of a point. Wigan dominated possession in the first half but to concede a goal two minutes from half-time was galling, especially when Gary Caldwell was allowed a free header."

Blackburn manager Steve Kean was relieved to see his team survive a second-half onslaught from Queens Park Rangers to secure a 3-2 win at Ewood Park: "I felt the first-half display was really exceptional and I think we put to bed the disappointment of the Arsenal game a little bit. I thought in the first half we were brilliant. Then we had Yakubu's chance to go to 4-0, and I felt after that that QPR thought they didn't really have anything to lose, so they started throwing all sorts at it. They changed their shape, went very offensive and I think once the first goal went in, we had a bit of a wobble and got a little bit nervous - which is understandable considering how many young players we have got in the team."

QPR boss Mark Hughes was frustrated on his return to his former club, having seen his team put in vastly differing displays in the first and second half: "You can't give any Premier League team a three-goal head start. We were very poor in that first half. The first 45 minutes were arguably the poorest we have been since I came through the door here and arguably of any of the teams I have been involved with to be honest. The first half wasn't acceptable, although we will take a little bit of comfort from the second half because I thought we then completely dominated proceedings.''

Fulham manager Martin Jol was full of praise for debut hero Pavel Pogrebnyak after their 2-1 win over Stoke: "We had somebody over with him during the process of getting his work permit,'' Jol said of his new signing. "He worked well and was fit. As you know, we don't have a lot of number nines at this club and he was keen to start. That was a positive thing and it meant Clint [Dempsey] could play in his position. I want players when I approach them that want to play for us. He said, 'Okay, I will play for the next four or five months and then we will wait and see'. It was a brave decision.''

Stoke City boss Tony Pulis wanted Pogrebnyak sent off following a clash with Wilson Palacios, which he thought was worse than the one which saw Robert Huth sent off last weekend: "Last week we had Robert Huth sent off for a challenge where he is going in and has pulled his two feet away and had both feet facing the ground. We have seen a challenge today from the Russian lad on Palacios where he catches Wilson on the knee. The referee didn't see it. Kevin Friend, the fourth official, is stood where we are and it was a very poor challenge. The kid doesn't even get a yellow card. The inconsistency in respect of incidents this season is really, really poor. I am really disappointed. Last week we had a player sent off. This week, for a worse challenge, and I think you will watch and agree, the lad doesn't even get a yellow card.''

Norwich manager Paul Lambert praised his team's desire after they came from 1-0 down to beat Swansea City 3-2: "I thought we deserved the win, the passing was brilliant, and the enthusiasm and desire to press the game was excellent," Lambert said. "Swansea scored against the run of play and maybe Andrew Surman should have made it 1-1 before half-time, but in the second half we were terrific. At half-time I said not to worry as we were well in the game, we gave as good as we got, the passing was excellent and the way we played the game was excellent."

The loss was only Swansea's second at the Liberty Stadium in the Premier League this season and their manager Brendan Rodgers bemoaned the lapses in concentration which cost his team three points: "We have scored two at home and we don't expect to lose those games," Rodgers said. "It was a close game in the first half and we scored an outstanding goal through Danny Graham, but we went to sleep in the first period of the second half and Norwich are a team that score goals and they will punish you."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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