Arsenal dug deep to record a 2-1 win over Middlesbrough on Monday night.Arsene Wenger won’t care for the manner of their victory; the Frenchman is under too much pressure to worry about aesthetics.Instead, Wenger will be delighted to return to London with all three points following a hard-fought battle at the Riverside Stadium.The 67-year-old even resorted to playing a three-man defence in order to spark an upturn in form.“It’s the first time in 20 years I’ve played it,” Wenger admitted afterwards, via The Guardian. “It shows that, even at my age, you can change.“We’ve lost a lot of direct fights centrally so it gets us a bit stronger in the air. It gives the team confidence to have something new to believe. I felt it was needed.
“We were vulnerable. Confidence in life goes away quickly but comes back slowly. There was some nervousness for us.”
Top four battle
Two wins in eight had seen the Gunners drop to seventh in the Premier League table. Yesterday’s win lifted them to sixth, seven points behind Manchester City, as they continue to battle for a top four finish.
It’ll be a tall order. If Arsenal win their game in hand, they will still be four points behind the Citizens, who occupy fourth place.
The Ox impressed
But if every player carries a similar attitude to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, they might just do it.
The Ox was among Arsenal’s best players against Middlesbrough. The 23-year-old played as a right-wing back but he coped incredibly well in his new position, as the stats show:
Oxlade-Chamberlain's terrific interview
But it wasn’t just his performance that left Arsenal fans purring. Oxlade-Chamberlain delivered a brilliant post-match interview in which he paid tribute to the fans that had travelled north to watch their side and also insisted that playing for the Gunners was an “honour”.
Check it out below.
Arsenal fans react
Oxlade-Chamberlain spoke honestly and with class, much to the delight of Arsenal supporters on Twitter.
Wenger: We needed to win
Wenger praised the performance of his three-match defence after the win.
“We needed to win,” he added. “We were tested and maybe rode our luck on one or two occasions with crosses but we were committed and the back three worked well in the first half, we were solid.”