Wenger impressed despite stalemate

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger hailed an ‘outstanding’ performance from his side despite them failing to defeat Manchester City at the Emirates.

Arsenal failed to break down a defensive-minded City in the 0-0 draw, and while Wenger admitted he was frustrated with the result, he had nothing but positive words for his players.

“I think we had an outstanding team performance and the positive is we kept a clean sheet,” Wenger told SkySports.

“Firstly the performance was encouraging, there is a fantastic quality and spirit, and you can see everyone can lose anywhere.”

“Obviously we are frustrated we didn’t score, but we dominated the game and in parts we combined it was good but it was frustrating.”

Wenger felt City’s defensive approach demonstrated that they had come to London looking for a draw.

“They looked to me like they were set up not to lose. If you look at how their goalkeeper was taking his time and how often they went down, for me they were happy with a 0-0.”

“They defended well and they deserve credit for that and overall, they were set up not to lose.”

But City boss Roberto Mancini disagreed, insisting his side wanted to win all three points.

“We wanted to play, but I think Arsenal played very well, they had good possession and if there is a team that plays better you must defend well,” Mancini said.

“I think this game is important not to lose, it is important – if you can win, but you can’t lose. We wanted to win, but Arsenal played better than us and we defended very well.”

Mancini heaped praise on Arsenal’s play but bemoaned the absence of several of his key players.

“I think Arsenal played very well. They had good chances in first 15-20 minutes, they had more possession but after this they didn’t have more chances to score.”

“We played better second-half but four games in 10 days is very hard and today we are missing important players, (Mario) Balotelli, (David) Silva and (Alexander) Kolarov, for us they are very important players.”

“If we came here with all of our players I think we could have given them another game but four games ten points is very good.”