2011-04-10 : Blackpool 1 - 3 Arsenal

Wenger: 'We had to stand up and respond'

Dear Arsenal Supporter,

It was a hard-fought game on Sunday and that's what you get with Blackpool, a team that is fighting against relegation.

I knew that they would not give up at 2-0 and, after we missed some chances in the first half, we had a little nervy period when Blackpool scored. Making it 3-1 killed the game because they had given a lot.

Overall, I think it was a good display from us because we had a good response to a flat performance against Blackburn last week. What people forget is that we are on a long unbeaten run, even if we had not won recently. But it was important to get a win again and we now have to go from game to game.

Jens Lehmann started the game because Manuel Almunia injured his knee in the warm-up. It's an injury that we now have to assess. I don't know whether Manuel will be ready for the Liverpool game, but we have Wojciech Szczesny who is not far away from fitness.

When Manuel was injured, we replaced a good goalkeeper with a good goalkeeper. The only concern was not having a goalkeeper on the bench. If something had happened to Jens, because he had not played for a long time, we would have had a problem.

Jens did well though. His decision-making was spot-on. In fairness, he didn't have a lot to do because we controlled the game quite well. But he is commanding and his authority helped us on set-pieces.

I did fear the worst when Jens brought down DJ Campbell - it was the important split-second of the game. I felt Jens played the ball, so even if the referee had given a penalty he could have given Jens a yellow card because he tried to intercept the ball.

Only three points was enough on Sunday to keep our title chances alive. We went through a difficult period after losing in three cup competitions, but we had to stand up and show we had the mental strength to respond. The team has done that remarkably well.

We have promised ourselves to give everything until the end of the season. There are still seven games left and that is a long time. I think we can maintain this intensity. We now have a rest, then we play on Sunday and then Tottenham the Wednesday after. We will give 100 per cent in every game.

Thanks for your support.

Arsène Wenger