Press conference

Wenger - The moment I thought we might be out

Arsene Wenger is one win away from completing a clean sweep of domestic trophies in English football.

The boss would become the eighth man to win the top flight, the FA Cup and the League Cup if we beat Manchester City on Sunday, but there was a moment when he thought our Carabao Cup chance had gone.

“Norwich maybe, when we won in extra-time [thanks to two goals from Eddie Nketiah],” he recalled. “We were 1-0 down and certainly that’s the moment that was the most wobbly, because we equalised very close to the end.

“We have certainly been economic [scoring six times en route to the final], because we’ve faced some good teams.

“I think we played against good sides, if you look well at our [path], it was not an easy one. We had to knock West Ham and Chelsea out. Overall I believe it doesn’t matter too much how you get to the final. Once you’re in the final, you want to win it.

“It’s true that I always used to use this competition with a youth team. For us it’s an opportunity. We’ll play with all the regular players. We go to Wembley and you want to win it, you want your fans to go home happy.”

They didn’t go home happy in 2011 when Birmingham City shocked us with a late winner at Wembley, and Wenger remembers it well.

“We gave soft goals away basically,” he said. “I remember that incident between Koscielny and Szczesny in the last minute of the game where we made a mistake at the back.

“Overall, I believe that the game was of quite good quality and Birmingham produced a good performance. I think we’ll be more in a position where Man City is favourite this time, so of course we have to raise our level to create the surprise.”

 

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