Arsenal making great progress – A. Wenger

Arsenal midfielder, Santi Cazorla wants the Gunners to continue playing the same way after securing a vital win against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.

The Spaniard, who is an important member of Arsene Wenger’s team, says, “the win was a very good result for us.” With this result, we have qualified and the team played well. The first goal was important for us – [Yaya] Sanogo played very well and had a good combination with me and the most important thing is the finish from him.

“The goal was very important for the team. We pressed high, had a good spirit and played very well. We need to continue playing the same and now focus on the league again.”

Having qualified for the knock-out stage, Cazorla now wants his team to top the group because “when you finish first, you can play against another team – not Barca, not Madrid, not PSG. It is difficult because we need Dortmund to lose or draw at home and for us to win at Galatasaray, but we want to win that last game.” 

On the contribution of Alexis Sanchez to the cause, Cazorla says, “Alexis is very important for us. He is in a good moment for the team and I hope he continues to play the same. He is a very important player for Arsenal.” 

Coming from a difficult period where the team have had some uninspiring results, Wenger commended his players. “May be we were defensively better; We are a team that likes to go forward; sometimes we feel we must dominate the game and we may forget to take precautions to defend. We did that better in the game.”

Like everyone else, Wenger singles out Sanchez for praise. “Alexis Sánchez has unbelievable fighting spirit, a mixture of talent and desire. I like what Yaya Sanogo did as well. What he did on his first goal is classic. Unfortunately, he got injured, though, and Mikel Arteta doesn’t look good either – it’s a calf. I think he will be out for a while. The injuries are difficult to take.” 

He believes the team can build on this result to revive their challenge in the Premiership.

“From now until February, we must improve as a team. We will get encouragement from tonight’s game and then we will have all our players back for the next round. If we look around Europe to see who has qualified there are many, many top teams,” he said.