Wenger relieved by pre-Olympiakos win

Arsenal failed to win any of their Premier League fixtures in November having won all of their matches in October. “It was a very important game for psychological reasons and the fact we had not won recently and lost important players in our side”. “I am in a good way, playing really well”.

Q: How much have you developed compared to previous years? Don’t forget that I was injured for a few months.

“I was more nervous than usual because I know it was a very important day for our season”, said the Frenchman.

The game eventually came to life in the 33rd minute after yet another sublime pass by top Gunner Mesut Ozil. I have to say the squad was tested today and it stood up to it. “I believe in myself”, Ozil was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror on Saturday.

Q: How hard will the Olympiacos game be?

Arsenal’s back four looked distinctly shaky during the opening stages, while up front the home side were also lacking in fluency, but when they did click, it culminated in the opening goal.

Well, we seem to have gone up in the estimation of the football media, but their comments have been couched with the standard response to any Allardyce team achieving a decent result “they’re not pretty to watch”. A stuttering title challenge, the threat of Champions League elimination and an injury epidemic are spreading anxiety like a particularly nasty winter virus.

“Hopefully we’re going to see more of him in that form”, Giroud added. But we showed we can win. We want to win this game with the two goals in our favour.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger confirmed the midfielder has ruptured his lateral ligament and rather than delay any longer had the operation this weekend. We have to be good in defence. If they score a goal then we have to score three goals, although we know that we can score goals, ” he said.

But this season he has blossomed – and all his ability and experience will be needed in what will be a passionate ad demanding atmosphere in Greece.

“We missed a very good chance inside the first 15 minutes and when those appear you need to grab them”.

“For us today, the only thing that let us down was we slipped up on the first goal, which we could have defended better”.

The London club took advantage of Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat at Stoke City and Manchester United’s failure to beat West Ham United by registering their first win in four league games. As the calendar turned, I hoped for better days.