Wenger: If we play like that, we’ll be in title fight

Mark Holmes
Arsene Wenger: Hoping to bring in Chilean teenager

Arsene Wenger: Hoping to bring in Chilean teenager

Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal will remain in Premier League title contention if they continue to play as they did at Swansea City.

The Gunners claimed a fifth straight league success by winning 3-0 at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday, but only after a goalless first half in which the Swans were the better team.

Bafetimbi Gomis wasted a glorious opening after being put clean through on Petr Cech’s goal and Swansea could have had a penalty when Per Mertesacker moved his hand to block Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick.

But Arsenal were a different proposition after the break, and goals from Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny and Joel Campbell saw them keep pace with leaders Manchester City and open up a three-point advantage on third place.

“We are very ambitious, very hungry as well and if we play like that we will be in the (title) fight,” Wenger told Sky Sports after Arsenal had avenged last season’s two league defeats to Swansea.

“In the first half it was difficult, but in the second half we upped our purpose and tempo and had pace in our combinations.

“Once we scored the first goal we were the dominant team and won the game normally.”

Giroud’s header four minutes after the restart was the 2,000th goal of Wenger’s 19-year reign, but the Arsenal manager was more concerned with points than landmarks ahead of this week’s testing Champions League visit to Bayern Munich.

“I am proud of scoring goals because people like to come to see football to see people try to play,” the Frenchman said.

“But the most important (thing), of course, was the three points – and we have made a little difference with some teams.

“Let’s focus on the quality of our game and keep a good balance between hunger, humility and confidence.

“It’s a very big week for us as we go to Bayern now and then we play Tottenham at home, but we have some very strong results behind us.”

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