Arsene Wenger: Tottenham gave Arsenal the chance to catch Manchester City and we could not waste it against Burnley

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James Benge3 October 2016

Arsene Wenger was relieved his Arsenal side made the most of the opportunity provided to them by Tottenham to close the gap on league leaders Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola’s City side lost their first game of the season earlier on Sunday as Tottenham claimed an impressive 2-0 win, leaving Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs as the only remaining unbeaten side in the top flight.

Tottenham’s win also gave Arsenal the chance to close the gap on the top two – which they eventually managed when Laurent Koscielny scored in stoppage time to secure a 1-0 win over Burnley.

The result leaves Arsenal a point behind Spurs and two behind Manchester City and with Wenger relieved his side made the most of the league leaders’ first slip.

“It’s a big win because City lost today,” Wenger said. “We were five points behind them and when you are five points behind a top quality team, when you have an opportunity to get a bit closer you cannot miss it. And that would’ve been the negative aspect of our game today had we not won.

“I must say, I am long enough in the job to know that you feel disappointed if you are in Burnley’s shoes because they gave absolutely everything and you can understand that they are a bit gutted to lose a game like that because they had put all the effort in to get the result.”

After the electrifying highs of recent wins over Chelsea and Basel Arsenal’s display at Turf Moor was notably more pedestrian, Mesut Ozil and Alex Iwobi particularly struggling to find any fluency.

Though Burnley did not see much of the ball they came closer than their visitors prior to the late winner, with both Sam Vokes and Michael Keane just missing the target with headed efforts, and Wenger admitted his side could have been on the end of a surprise defeat rather than toasting a dramatic win.

“Look it was a big test for us because I think we were motivated, we had the attitude right and our legs were not as dynamic as in recent games,” he said. “Our technique as well, we made some technical mistakes today.

“I must say, Burnley made it difficult for us. They defended very well, they were very well organised in a very intelligent way and I give the merit to my team. We kept going until the end, we got a bit lucky as well, a bit fortunate to win the game in the end but you can only have the chance to win it if you keep going.

“It was the kind of game we could’ve won 1-0 and we could’ve lost 1-0 as well. Burnley makes everybody suffer here and I think that will last until the end of the season.”

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