Per Mertesacker : We can beat any team in the world

“[We feel] very good, very positive,”

“We have to cope with difficulties and criticism in our job, that is part of it, but we have a good chance to repair it."

“We want to do better and make better decisions. We did something wrong [in the first leg], but can we learn from that and put another performance in? We need another performance and obviously it is not going to be easy, but we have to show a different face.”

“We have moved on and improved a lot, so that’s why we are very confident that, even away from home, we can beat any team in the world.”

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Arsene Wenger : The Desire is There, the Belief is There

Champions League Preview :
Arsene Wenger Interview

About Stats : No team has turned around a two-goal deficit in the away leg of a Champions League tie

"The statistics don’t matter," he said. "They are against us. The result from the first leg is against us, we’re conscious of that.

"But no matter how big the percentage is, we are going to give absolutely everything to make the stats lie. That’s our desire and that’s our belief we can do it."

About Olivier Giroud

"He owes a great performance for himself as all the greatest strikers want to do as well as possible on the pitch,"

"He missed a few opportunities in the first leg but what striker doesn't miss an opportunity?

"I really think he is at the international level. I believe this. He has the right mental level. We have to trust the people who play at this kind of level.

"We will need to be really creative up front in order to create some opportunities,"

"We had a lot of chances in the first leg actually, more than people said. It is true that Giroud didn't manage to convert. But now he is in better condition. He got over the disappointment of the first leg and will do everything to be at the top level."

About his comeback to Monaco

"For me, it is very special moment,"

"I was a young coach here at Monaco… I have a lot of respect for Monaco and I want to thank the whole club."

"Tomorrow will be a Champions League game, and the experience I have gained can help me to make the right decision," he added. "I am able to separate the emotion of coming back and the importance of the game. I am here for work and my job is for my club to win."

About France

 "It is a bit of a concern if it rains a bit but I just went up there and it’s good, very good," he said.

"When it rains in the south of France, it rains, it doesn’t drizzle. They had to postpone a game recently against Montpellier because of the game but apparently the conditions will not be bad on the rain front."

"The French level is very good," he said. "I always had the highest respect for the French league, because when we play against a French team we always have a mountain to climb as they are physically ready, well organised and I think in France they are up for Europe as well, very focused on it.”

"It is always very difficult to play against French teams. Having said that, our record with Arsenal in France is absolutely outstanding. We have always done well here."

About the Opportunities

"Ideally you want always to score early goals,"

"but I believe you just have to play with full power, not forget your organisation and structure in the team and the goals come when they come. We must focus on the quality of your game on both sides, defensively and offensively. Nobody can predict when the goals will come.”

"You can expect us to show a different side to our game. We totally missed the first leg against Monaco, which was surprising. We did not play well, but sometimes in life if you miss a chance you do not have a second chance, We do, so we will play it fully."

"The desire is there, the belief is there,"

"Football is not predictable but I can predict the desire and belief will be there to do well. We play in the Champions League last 16, we have experience and we know that anything can happen. As long as we believe we can do it, I am confident we will."

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Arsene Wenger : We Can Beat Anyone

About the performance
I think in patches it was very good. The goals put us under pressure and [Rosicky] got the third one which eased it a bit. But you have to give credit to Brighton, they came at us. But with the results About Saturday not going for the Premier League teams, we knew it was going to be a tough game. That is what the FA Cup is about.

About Rosicky disguising his pass
That is what Tomas does all the time in training, he looks the other way and passes the ball. It gets me all the time! He has that quality going forward, I love the way that he turn and breaks. It is nice to get three goals, but we are disappointed with the goals we have conceded. We will look back About that and what we could have done better. But in the FA Cup it doesn’t matter how you perform, as long as you get through.

About the perfect start
Yeah, it’s been a long time coming. I had a lot of chances since I have been back, but I have been out for a year so it is still going to take time. It is just nice to get some match fitness back. I was very pleased with the finish and there will definitely be many more. People will be expecting me to score every game now but it’s all about getting the match fitness, sharpness and the goals back. The goal was a bonus.

About a nervy finish
That’s what the FA Cup’s about. BrightAbout did very well and we did very well in places. It was a typical FA Cup tie. It was always going to be tough given the results that happened yesterday so the most important thing is to go through - we did that and we’re into the next round.

About building About the Manchester City win
It was breathtaking at times against Brighton. It’s nice to get back in amongst it as well. We’re getting players back to fitness and when you do that there’s a competitiAbout for places - the manager’s going to have a bit of a headache picking his best 11. It was nice to go through.

About whether BrightAbout surprised Arsenal
They didn’t surprise us at all - it was the same as a couple of years back. It was always a tough challenge which is what makes the FA Cup so special. We’re just very grateful that we got through in the end and Tomas’ goal was a fantastic finish.

About BrightAbout making Arsenal work very hard
The results yesterday told us that this was always going to be tough, always going to be a challenge. You’ve got to give credit to Brighton, they came at us but thankfully Tomas’ fantastic finish gave us the win.

About starting well
It’s always important to try and silence the crowd at the start of every game and we managed to do that by playing some fantastic football in the first half. We started to start playing slightly off in the second half but that’s what happens in the FA Cup. It’s just important to get through. It’s an opportunity that we need to grab.

About the goal being another step in his rehabilitation
The goals will come but I’m just enjoying being back with the guys and working About my fitness, getting the sharpness right. I was blowing quite heavily towards the end but I was very pleased with the finish. The most important thing is that the team got through.

About retaining the FA Cup
We’ve got to believe that this is a great opportunity and we want to hold About to the cup. It’s our cup and it’s a massive opportunity looking at all of those teams that haven’t gone through. It depends About the draw but we believe that with the team that we’ve got and the players coming back to fitness, we can beat anyone.

About the returning players
It is like new signings that have come into the dressing room, the likes of Mesut coming back, getting a goal and doing very well. The sharpness will come with games and the competitiAbout is going to give a headache to the manager to pick his best XI. the players who have come in have done very well so it shows that we have a great squad when everyone is fit. I think we can compete for anything.

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Arsene Wenger : If we think it’s the right price we will pay

About Transfer Rumour of Gabriel Paulista (Villareal Defender)
“We are talking at the moment. Can we find an agreement or not? I don’t know. We are slowly progressing but there’s a chance,” the manager said.
“We are ready to pay the price we think is right for a good player, no matter what the price is. If we think it’s the right price we will pay.
“[The deal is] 50-50 at this moment. We respect the rules in England - when you buy a player who does not fulfil the criteria and needs a work permit, you go in front of a commission and they tell you yes or no. We will accept that.”
“First of all I don’t really understand the logic of this rule,” he said. “[I don’t understand] the logic that the availability of the work permit is linked exactly with the amount of money you spend. It should be linked with the quality of the players only.
“Secondly we want the player. If a player we want needs a work permit then we’ll [do] it now because we will not necessarily want to do it in the summer. We are short at the moment so no matter what the rules are, we have to do it now.”

About English Premier League nowadays
“I think the quality and the audience of the Premier League all over the world is big,”
“Maybe Europe is getting poor but the rest of the world is getting richer.
“The rest of the world invests in football in Europe, and at the moment, only in England. Will that last? I’m not completely sure.“
“The second reason is that it’s down to you - to television - and down to the fact that the television [companies] in England pay the money that makes us richer.
“I’m always a bit cautious to use the word ‘best’, but it’s certainly the most spectacular and certainly the most attractive to watch for sure.“

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Arsene Wenger : About Match-Winning against Mancherster City

About Team Performance
The difference is that we have injured players back who were out for a long time and also that we know it’s a very important period. The confidence of the team is high and some players are in very good form. We scored the first goal today and it was much easier for us to control them. We always looked dangerous when we won the ball but we had a good solidarity level and a good compactness, and the regret of the day is that we didn’t always take advantage of the situations we created in the final third. There was room to maybe score more goals.

About the Competition
Time will tell. What is for sure is that it increases the level of belief and confidence. We have five months in front of us that are very important in the lifespan of the team and what you make of that will decide our season. Games like that can help you to do very well.

About Santi Cazorla
Since Cazorla has started playing centrally - he played wide a lot and now he’s at a level of his career where he can have more influence centrally - he’s been fantastic because he gets you out of pressure in very tight situations. He finds openings that are very interesting. He is a good example for young players, he shows you how important it is to be two footed in the middle of the park - it’s a vital quality for a midfielder today - and he does that very well. He loves the game.

About the Penalty
My initial reaction from the bench was that it was a penalty. Somebody told me that we were a bit fortunate to get it, but from the bench it looked a penalty. I have to watch it again.

About Francis Coquelin
I took him from France at the age of 16. Today he is 23. He has gone through some difficult periods but he’s a learner from his experiences. I’ve always kept faith in him, because I told him three months ago that he needed to play somewhere. He accepted to go down to Charlton and had convincing performances. Now he’s come back, I’ve played him and he’s done very well.

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Arsène Wenger : About Arsenal Plan in Winter Transfer Window

"Yes we are more [in the market now]," he told Arsenal.com.

"We have Chambers and we have Bellerin, who is coming on well,
and I want to give them a chance as well,
but of course we are in the market like many other clubs.

"We work really hard morning until late night to try to get one or two players in."

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Arsenal Team : About Alexis Sanchez Performance against Stoke City

Arsene Wenger :
The better the team plays, the more he is involved in the game because we attacked a lot. We had a very offensive team today and he’s confident. He’s another - like Giroud - and we can be direct with him, you can run at people a bit more, so there’s a good combination offensively.

when you play at home - our pitch is perfect even in winter - you can move the ball well when you have so many technical players on the pitch. It is an advantage for us. What was important for me is that we kept a good concentration to play the game how we want to play and also that we kept a clean sheet at the back. Overall, I must say that everybody played very well. The only negative today is that we lost another experienced defender with a dislocated shoulder. That gives us a problem because we are already short of experienced players at the back.

Lauren Koscielny :
Alexis is amazing because he’s played more than 25 games and he still runs like it’s his first game. It’s amazing and it’s not just in attack - he defends well. If he needs to run back to help us defend, he does, so he has a good mentality, which makes him a world-class player.

Ox Chamberlain :
He’s amazing. He shows it week-in, week-out and I think that’s the most important thing for top players to do. It’s about consistency and it’s not good enough to just be good one week. Everybody wants to see you great every week and I think Alexis has done that all the way through this season. He was brilliant again, scoring two good goals and setting Laurent’s goal up as well. Hopefully it continues for him because he’s having a great season, he’s brimming with confidence and obviously it helps the team as well so it was another great performance from him. There were a lot of good performances out there but obviously with the two goals and the assist, he’s the star of the show.

Santi Cazorla :
Alexis is one of the best players in the world, he’s very important for us, he plays very well every game and I hope he can play the same all season.

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Arsene Wenger : About Match-Winning against Stoke City

About the victory :
We moved well without the ball and moved the ball well, which is the basis of our game. Overall, we created chances, were mobile and the speed of our game created problems for Stoke. We took advantage of that.

I watched the game against Stoke that we played over there. It’s difficult to say you played well when you concede three goals, but going forward we always looked dangerous. We missed the start of the game there and we paid for it. Today, from the first minute, we played at a good pace, put them on the back foot and that was the difference.

About the success against Stoke home and away :
They are different as well. You forget sometimes that the opponent is different sometimes when they come to the Emirates. They are less confident than when they play at Stoke and we are maybe less confident at Stoke than we are here.

About Arsenal having the best passing accuracy in the final third :
It’s one aspect of the game that is very positive because it shows that we have offensive potential. Football is a game where you have to be realistic as well because we have to stop conceding goals and that’s why today hopefully will improve our defenders’ confidence. We have another big game next week and we want to combine being dangerous going forward and being tight at the back. The defenders came in very happy today because they didn’t concede a goal. Our last away game at Southampton, we were not at the level.

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Arsene Wenger : About Injuries in Arsenal & Return of Olivier Giroud

"Ideally you want stability there but as you know we had Koscielny and Debuchy injured for long periods,” he said. "After that, we had Gibbs and Monreal injured as well, so there was a lot of movement in [the defence], which is not ideal."

"I feel [we are getting stronger now]. We could benefit from that because these are players who are not overloaded with games. Some of our players have played 26 or 27 games, whereas some have played four or five. These players coming back can give us some impact for the coming months.”

Giroud’s return after a three-match ban gives Wenger food for thought up front. Alexis Sanchez flourished through the middle last weekend, but the manager says that the France international has the requisite qualities to trouble the more physically imposing of Arsenal’s opponents."

"Our game is a bit more orientated on crosses [when Giroud plays] and sometimes it’s a bit more direct as well because we know we can find him and he can win headers, especially from the goalkeeper,” Wenger said."

"Both options are very interesting and sometimes one is more suited to the game than the other, so Olivier gives us something different. He’s sometimes what makes us a bit more dangerous and gives us a different pattern of play.”

Wenger on Beckham join PSG

"Beckham is a world brand and the eyes will be on him, and on PSG, therefore also on the French league while he is there"
"I don't know if he had offers from all around the world, but PSG is not a bad choice because they are a very ambitious club, who have a lot of potential.
"They look to extend their reputation at the moment, and Beckham certainly is a good part in that."
"It just shows you how efficient we are with our training sessions. He came here to practise once, and straight away he was bought by Paris St Germain."
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