Wenger hails his team replies Mourinho

Arsene Wenger spoke of his teams  performance after watching his side battle past Liverpool to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals last on Sunday.

The Gunners took the lead at Emirates Stadium in the 16th minute when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain drilled home from close range.

Lukas Podolski then doubled the home side’s lead shortly after the break as he finished of a sweeping Arsenal move.

Steven Gerrard pulled one back for the visitors from the penalty spot on the hour-mark after Luis Suárez was brought down by Podolski.

The Reds then had another penalty call controversially waved away by referee Howard Webb after Suárez was clattered by Oxlade-Chamberlain in the box.

But Wenger’s men held on to set up a last-eight showdown with Everton at Emirates Stadium.
“The intensity of the performance pleased me,” Wenger told BT Sport. “I am very proud of the way we responded to the huge defeat that we had [at Anfield] last week. That was the most pleasing thing.

“Liverpool are a good side and have shown it again today. It was a great football game where of course Liverpool took the initiative more than us, but we were never in a position where we really had to go for it. We were focused on protecting our advantage. They are a fantastic offensive force.

Meanwhile Wenger claimed that José Mourinho has embarrassed Chelsea with his “silly and disrespectful” remarks about him.

The Chelsea boss branded Wenger a “specialist in failure” on Friday as the war of words between the two managers moved up a gear.

Mourinho’s comments came after the Frenchman claimed that the Chelsea manager’s refusal to acknowledge his side as title contenders was due to a “fear of failure.”

But Wenger labelled Mourinho’s comments as “embarrassing” for Chelsea following his side’s 2-1 FA Cup fifth-round win over Liverpool.
“I do not want to go into those silly, disrespectful remarks,” Wenger told BT Sport. “I never spoke about him in that press conference and I will not start that (now).

“The only thing I know is that it’s more embarrassing for Chelsea than for me.”

The Arsenal manager later added in his post-match news conference: “I am embarrassed for him. I’m not interested in the subject – that is really genuine.”

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