Monday 7 March 2016 10:19, UK
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes his side have shown they can deal with the pressure of expectation from the club's fans.
The Gunners rescued a point from their north London derby at Tottenham on Saturday as Alexis Sanchez scored an equaliser to seal a 2-2 draw despite Arsenal being down to 10 men.
Aaron Ramsey had given the visitors the lead at White Hart Lane before Francis Coquelin was sent off for two bookable offences - with Tottenham turning the game on its head as Toby Alderweireld and Harry Kane struck in the space of two minutes.
Having lost three games in succession heading into the fixture, Arsenal showed enough desire to get back in the game through Sanchez, who had questioned the squad's self-belief to win the Premier League title prior to kick-off.
With Arsenal's 2-1 defeat to Swansea last week sparking a negative reaction from their own supporters, Wenger has praised his players for showing they can handle pressure imposed by fans of the club.
"Look, I'm like everybody, I prefer that the fans are happy," Wenger said.
"But I'm more worried that it can get to the players' confidence level, but I feel we have shown a great response as a team that we can deal with that, we analyse that well. We gave the right response.
"We have to focus on what is our job and do it well. They've shown [against Tottenham] that even if the confidence is not high, they can play well."
Danny Welbeck was chosen ahead of Olivier Giroud in Wenger's starting line-up on Saturday despite only recently returning from injury, and Wenger revealed the striker is still unable to play a full 90 minutes as he strives for match fitness.
"He has worked very hard," Wenger said of the former Manchester United man.
"I have seen every day the effort he has put in. Someone is telling me always 'in the Premier League he cannot play the whole game' but I have seen what he has done in training and I got a lot of encouragement from that.
"Even when I took him off you could still see that if needed he had a little burst to go. But from then on I thought maybe we do not want a setback for him.
"Medically they have questioned his knee is not true completely and so they are still a bit worried, but he looks perfect.
"I felt as well that he could give them problems with pace. I like him in there because he is a combination of pace and stature.
"He has a good mixture. So when Danny Welbeck is determined and really goes for it and he is ready for the fight, he has all the attributes to play up there."
