Wenger: Win like this ‘was coming’ for Arsenal

Mark Holmes
Francis Coquelin: Arsenal midfielder could return against Olympiakos

Francis Coquelin: Arsenal midfielder could return against Olympiakos

Arsene Wenger hailed Arsenal’s attacking performance at Leicester and revealed his hope that Francis Coquelin could return against Olympiakos.

Alexis Sanchez scored a hat-trick to help Arsenal to a 5-2 win at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, with Wenger hailing the Chile forward as “world class” after the game.

Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud were also on target for the Gunners, but Wenger was not surprised by the margin of victory against a Leicester side that had started the season well.

“We created many chances and I felt a game like this confidence was coming,” Wenger said. “I think we always looked dangerous.

“We managed to come back from 2-1 and after that I feel we dominated the game.

“I want us to score goals but I must say Leicester played well and to play a good football game there needs to be two teams. They had the stronger start, they pushed us on our back foot from the start when they scored the first goal, and I must say I was concerned after that as I thought they were close to scoring a second one and it would have made it difficult.

“We found the resources to equalise and after that our technical quality and the pace of our strikers gave them problems and we managed to make it 2-1 before half-time. In the second half we controlled the game and looked always like we could add another one.

“Alexis was waiting for a goal and he’s not used to not scoring for so long so it was important for him to score.”

Arsenal’s only disappointment on the day was the hamstring injury sustained by Mathieu Flamini, but Wenger is hopeful that Coquelin could return in the Champions League.

“Coquelin could be available for Tuesday – he is the only one that could come back in,” Wenger said.

“Today we lost Mathieu Flamini – it’s his hamstring – but Gabriel is not suspended.”

Arsenal remain without Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky.