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Camden Sports - RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 31 December 2008

Wenger: Give us some credit!

Gunners boss defends team from the ‘bad publicity’ whipped up by the press

ARSENE Wenger finally managed a smile at Christmas after his team beat Portsmouth, and then turned to reporters and told them: Give my side more credit!
He said his team had been unfairly judged by the press. Although Arsenal made heavy weather of Pompey, scraping over the line with a late header from William Gallas, Wenger was delighted with his team.
He said: “We are always fighting bad headlines. Look at the last six matches, we won three and drew three, and in the three we drew we were leading. I am not stressed because I am worried, I just want this team to be rewarded for the hard work they put in.”
Wenger has had to rally the troops after a missed opportunity to beat Villa, who are threatening to steal a place in next season’s Champions League from Arsenal, on Boxing Day.
But he said: “If you look what came out after that match in the papers, you would think we had been completely disastrous. I have never had a team that has had so much bad publicity.”
Wenger, who is without injured players Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott, knows if his team managed to win the league from this position it would rank as one of his greatest-ever achievements.
But despite the collosal challenge ahead, he once again refused to chuck in the towel on Sunday.
“We have to take each game at a time,” he said, borrowing football’s most overused cliché. “First we have to reduce the gap and then see where we are.
“The teams above us will drop points, you can see that from Chelsea drawing at Fulham.
“It is up to us to be consistent. It’s important to keep going as we have been going.”

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