The Gunners rallied from a goal down at the break to secure a crucial win over the table-toppers in the dying seconds of stoppage time
Arsene Wenger hailed super subs Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck for keeping Arsenal’s title hopes alive.
Arsenal were 20 minutes away from falling eight points behind Leicester until Walcott and Welbeck struck late on to fire the Gunners to a dramatic win against 10-man leaders Leicester.
Walcott cancelled out Jamie Vardy’s penalty opener before Welbeck – on his ahead-of-schedule comeback from 10 months out with a knee injury - headed a dramatic winner five minutes into added time to send the Emirates wild.
Wenger said: “That game shows you, at that level, the bench plays a big part. When you dominate the games, you can bring on strikers like Walcott or Welbeck, it changes completely your opportunities.
“A loss today would have been massive. After losing you get all the negative vibes, the belief goes down, it would have been much more difficult.
“We would not have given up, but eight points is three games to come back. We would need to win three, they would need to lose three.”
Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri was fuming about Danny Simpson’s dismissal for two yellows in five minutes and also over the timing of Welbeck’s winner.
He said: “I am very angry because maybe I make mistakes but an international referee gives two yellow cards for normal fouls and the match was full of fouls and very difficult fouls.
“When you make one yellow card you have to stay calm, my players but also the referee. In the second half maybe the crowd push a lot and put him under pressure. Also there was four minutes of extra time (signalled) and there was five minutes (played).”
But Ranieri was proud of his players after they finished a daunting run of three games against Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal with a battling display at the Emirates and tally of six points.
And, with no game for a fortnight, he has handed his players a week off.
He said: “I said to them ‘go home and we will see you next Monday’ because they deserve it. “They will go, I don’t know where, Dubai maybe, wherever they want. I will have one day in London and then I will go to Rome.”
Mirror
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Want to comment? write down here