Arsenal take Wenger to Hell and back

AFP - 15 April 2007 02:42

Arsenal´s Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas(C) celebrates scoring during their English Premiership match against Bolton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium in London. Arsenal took a giant leap towards qualification for next season´s Champions League after edging out nearest rivals Bolton 2-1 on Saturday.

LONDON (AFP) - Arsene Wenger hailed Arsenal's character after admitting they had "flirted with Hell" in the run-up to their crucial 2-1 win over Bolton.

The Gunners' hard-fought victory on Saturday opened up a five-point gap over Sam Allardyce's side in the race to qualify for next season's Champions League and ended a potentially costly four-match winless streak.

Arsenal had also scored just one goal in that lean spell and their wobble appeared set to continue when their former striker Nicolas Anelka fired Bolton into an early lead at the Emirates stadium.

But goals from Tomas Rosicky and Cesc Fabregas overhauled the deficit and Arsenal ended the afternoon with their famed fluency at least partly restored, much to Wenger's delight.

"Last week we were in a bad situation but we responded well mentally," he said. "With a team, you live in a tunnel and sometime you have to flirt with Hell to see how you deal with it and if you can come back stronger.

"We've had a disappointing three or four weeks but I'm proud of the way the team responded today. I respected the way they have behaved, even if these last few weeks have been the most painful.

"Our bad periods are always exaggerated but when you flirt with a bad period, you find out what is in your team. Unfortunately, in football you go quickly to hell and very slowly to heaven."

Wenger insisted his side had not struck a killer blow in their efforts to seal a top-four finish, although Bolton's faint hopes would surely evaporate if Arsenal chalk up a second successive victory in their game in hand against Manchester City on Tuesday.

"It's not completely decisive for us in terms of the Champions League but it is a big step," Wenger added. "We have the game in hand and we have to focus on that now but certainly we would have been in a bad situation had we lost against Bolton.

"When we went one down, I felt it was an interesting case to see how we responded and how much we believed in the football we play. I got a quick response because we created chance after chance and we out-played Bolton."

Allardyce, inevitably, took a different view. The Bolton manager was furious at the referee Rob Styles' failure to award a late penalty after Emmanuel Eboue appeared to handle in the area, and also criticised his decision to send off Ivan Campo for a second bookable offence with eight minutes remaining.

"We are disappointed because of the penalty decision and disappointed in the referee," he said. "It was a major one and he got it wrong. But it is Arsenal away and we know clubs like ours don't get those decisions.

"There's nothing that we can do about it now but I will complain because I need to. But what is Rob Styles going to say to me? He got it horribly wrong for us and on such a big day, that is a massive decision. It could have given us a point which could have been a major point for us.

"I am also very disappointed in Ivan Campo's sending-off with all the tackles that were being made out there today. I don't know where he got that from because the first one wasn't a foul."

Allardyce's comments might well prompt a summons from the English Football Association, who are never slow to respond when they perceive the integrity of officials is called into question, although there will be no quibbles with his assessment that Bolton's chances of an unexpected visit to Europe's top table have been dashed. "We can say the Champions League is out of the way," he conceded.