Arsene Wenger

Published: 15 November, 2012
by STEVE BARNETT

ARSENE Wenger believes Arsenal are still very much in the title race, providing they improve defensively against rivals Spurs on Saturday in the north London derby.

The Gunners were forced to settle for a 3-3 draw in their home game against Fulham on Saturday after throwing away a 2-0 lead, a result that was compounded in injury-time when Cottagers’ goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer saved Mikel Arteta’s penalty.

Wenger admits that at 2-0 his side lost their focus but he’s backing them to come good, starting this Saturday at the Emirates.

“The belief is not at its maximum at the moment but we have to digest and come back again. That’s the game, that’s football, that’s sport.

“We have only lost one game at home and on two set-pieces until now. So I think Saturday against Fulham was a little bit of a special day, but I think we can defensively do much better.

“If we had scored the penalty, nobody speaks about it. ‘You had some dodgy moments in the game, but you won’. Three points, that’s what we wanted. We were close to doing it, and we have to do it in the next game on Saturday.”

Reflecting on whether or not the dropped points against Fulham ended Arsenal’s chances of winning the title, Wenger added: “I feel of course that we are in the title race. Why not? It is a concern because we looked quite solid defensively until now and on Saturday we looked very fragile.

“I put that down to the fact that at 2-0 up instead of becoming more aggressive we became a bit easier instead of continuing to push forward to close them down.

“We let them play and that was a big problem for us. When we were 3-2 down we went for it and created chances again.”