FOOTBALL : Arsene Wenger hailed his freescoring Arsenal side as offering the most attacking options since his arrival at the club after watching them sweep aside AZ Alkmaar.
Arsene Wenger hailed his freescoring Arsenal side as offering the most attacking options since his arrival at the club after watching them sweep aside AZ Alkmaar.
Wenger’s men defeated their Dutch opponents 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium to leave them needing a point to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages. Cesc Fabregas opened the scoring with a tame effort that beat goalkeeper Sergio Romero before Andrey Arshavin took centre stage, setting up Samir Nasri, Fabregas again and Abou Diaby.
Assessing the number of attacking options in his squad, Wenger said: “As many on the creative side? Certainly not. We had still Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott who are offensive players who are not available.”
He added: “Denilson, Eduardo, Rosicky did not start, that is why I was amazed when people said ‘buy, buy, buy.’ And Vela as well, I forgot him.”
Wenger is on the brink of guiding Arsenal into the last 16 for the 10th time in a row.
“We are consistent,” the Frenchman added. “This season we look like we’re getting stronger and stronger in each game. It’s important to keep that attitude to progress, improve and play for each other more. Then we are allowed to believe in our future.
“We have quality and I believe in this team but it will be down to us to grow and be consistent.”
Fabregas believes there is much more to come from himself and his team-mates.
“It’s just the beginning of the season, nothing is done, we want to keep going until the end,” Fabregas said. “I’ll feel it is something special when we win something.
“We want to win and if we win something at the end we will say we had a good year. We can still do better so we’ll try to improve in the next few games.”
