Wenger proud despite defeat

Date: 10th December 2009 at 8:22 am
Written by FFC News Desk

Arsene Wenger admitted he was proud of the performance put on by his youthful Arsenal side despite them signing off on their Champions League group campaign with a defeat.

Wenger named an experimental line-up and lost 1-0 to Olympiacos on Wednesday night.

Arsenal were already assured of their place in the last 16 as Group H winners so defensive duo Tom Cruise and Kyle Bartley were both handed first-team debuts.

The Gunners had chances to win the game in Athens through Theo Walcott and Carlos Vela, but afterwards Wenger spoke of his pride at the level of performance produced by a side with the lowest average age in Champions League history – just 21.

"I am very proud of the young players, there are a lot of positives," said Wenger.

"From Barnet to Athens is a big jump, but they did very well. Nobody was disappointing and it is difficult to single out individual performances, although (Aaron) Ramsey had a good presence, gave good balls and produced a good work-rate.

"They all looked like they played every week in this competition.

"I had the performance I expected, but not the result we could have got.

"These youngsters play exactly like the first team and they represented Arsenal well tonight, despite the fact that they are the youngest team to have played in the Champions League."

Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Rate this article

0 votes Vote!!
 

Related Articles

Leave a Comment



Your Comment:

Subscribe to our VIP mailing list

Enter Security Code:

If you want your picture to display next to your comments head on over to gravatar.com to get your free 'globally recognised avatar'. It will work on many other sites and forums too and all you need to sign up is an email address!