Wenger: Arsenal “restricted” Newcastle to “no chances”

Arsene Wenger has heaped praise on his Arsenal side as they won a second away game inside four days with a hard fought victory over Newcastle United.

Arsenal were evenly matched by their hosts for long spells of the game, but managed to squeeze out the win thanks to Olivier Giroud’s second half strike, which moves them back to the top of the table after briefly being knocked off the summit by Manchester City on Saturday.

Wenger was very satisfied with the performance from his team who claimed a second three point haul of the festive calendar, having come from behind to beat West Ham on Boxing Day.

The Arsenal manager told Sky Sports, “We had to dig deep today. I think we controlled the game quite well and restricted them to basically no chances, but they are a good team.

“There were two aspects to the game. The first was leading up to 1-0 when we were quite in control, but after that we subconsciously only wanted to defend.

“Of course there were some situations in our box, but our spirit got us through.”

Wenger also had individual praise for Olivier Giroud, though he commended his physical qualities as opposed to his match-winning strike.

“That is what you need in a team. He has these qualities and that is very important.

“We are small and technical, so to have a player up front to counterbalance that is important.”

Do the stats back up Wenger’s praise of his side?

Arsenal were not at their imperious best against Newcastle, but given the fatigue factor of such a run of games, they did well to get the three points away from a Newcastle side that have been on a good run of late.

Newcastle were restricted to just the three shots on target in the game, with Arsenal bettering their hosts with their passing accuracy and their tackle success, giving them the platform they needed to claim the maximum haul.