Arsene Wenger hailed his side's never say die attitude as they
came from behind to beat Manchester United 2-1.
Arsenal looked to be heading to defeat courtesy of Wayne Rooney's
second half goal, but late strikes from Robin van Persie and
Thierry Henry stole an unlikely victory for Wenger's men to keep
the title race wide open.
Wenger was delighted with his side's fighting spirit as they kept
their own slim championship hopes alive.
"We won by never giving up," Wenger told Sky Sports.
"I felt we started nervously and Manchester United were mature and
played with great belief.
"We are on the way up, we knew in the second half we could have a
good go at them and take over, but unexpectedly they scored with
the only chance they had in the second half and then it was a
question of strength and resilience.
"I've got some lions in that team and they are getting stronger and
stronger with every game.
"I felt that for a while (his side are getting stronger). We could
mix up our game, we needed to be direct and we went direct
sometimes in my taste a little too much.
"We mixed our game well in the second half and never gave up and in
the end we have such a spirit in squad for a while now and that
took over."
Wenger also felt United contributed to their own downfall by
time-wasting at times.
"I felt as well when United were 1-0 up they tried too much to get
time but it turned against them because they lost their game,"
added Wenger.
Wenger also revealed he intended not to use van Persie against
United because he was injured, but admitted he had no other choice
as his side chased a goal in the closing stages.
"He (van Persie) can score goals, he went really for it," said
Wenger.
"But he had ankle problem before the game and I was determined to
clear that and not to bring him on today but we were in a situation
where we needed three or four strikers and in the end we played
with five."
Wenger was also happy with the contribution of Henry despite the
Arsenal captain being on the periphery for long periods of the
game.
When asked if Henry had been anonymous before his goal Wenger said:
"Anonymous is a big word because I felt it was a difficult game for
strikers.
"He contributed a lot physically to the defensive work of the team
and made a lot of runs where the ball did not always arrive so I
would not agree with that."
