I think it was a very good football game on Saturday. Newcastle had a very good first half and put us under pressure and could have been in front, of course, with the penalty. They had two or three other good chances as well.
In the second half we kept the tempo high, slowly took over and then won the game in a convincing way. I must say as well Newcastle were unfortunate to lose players, like Sebastien Bassong and Steven Taylor, at the wrong period of the game.
Manuel Almunia's penalty save in the first half was very important. I felt, though, that when the penalty was given, our shoot-out win in Rome would help him; it made him feel strong on penalties. Of course it is a bit of a toss-up, but I think some part of a penalty is psychological. On that front, the fact he helped us to win in Rome gave him the needed confidence.
With Chelsea and Manchester United losing it was a good opportunity for us to close in on those at the top. You never know, even in a one in a billion chance, we want to come back and fight to get as close to the team at the top.
We are unbeaten in 16 games in the Premier League and I feel we are improving in every game. This is a young side and the spirit is great, the quality is there and we feel we can go forward from game to game. People don’t realise how young we are in the Premier League, and what we achieve. I think today you had six or seven players between 20 and 22 years of age.
We are now ahead of Aston Villa in fourth place but the only thing that has changed from two weeks ago is that it is in our hands now. We do not have to focus too much on the results of Villa.
That shows you, if you drop a little bit, you are quickly caught. We could have been eight points behind Aston Villa two weeks ago, so we want to keep our focus, and our performances at a high level.
Arsène Wenger
www.arsenal.co.uk
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