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Camden New Journal - by TOM FOOT
Published: 2 October 2008

‘We’ve been to Hull and back,’ admits Wenger

Arsenal recovery job ‘only half done’

ARSENE Wenger hailed the Champions League rout of Porto as “the most complete performance” after the Gunners bounced back from Saturday’s horror show against Hull City.
But the Arsenal boss said the job of responding to the shock 2-1 defeat was “only half done”, and urged his players to “stay focused” for Saturday’s clash against Sunderland.
He said: “I think we were complacent against Hull. But I got my message across. We needed to respond as a team and I think we did that. It was what I expected.
“The determination to win the fight in the air was there. But the job is only half done – we will only know if we have turned the corner after Sunderland.”
The manager had criticised his players for “having a careless attitude” in the match against Hull.
The Gunners are yet to play against one of the big four and, in losing to Hull and Fulham, have come out second best against teams considered by many to be relegation candidates before the start of the season.
Striker Emmanuel Adebayor, one of the main culprits in both those matches, said: “We can all put in our head what we have done today (against Porto) and try to repeat that on Saturday. We need to play with more concentration.
“It is going to be difficult on Saturday because we are playing our away game.”
But Wenger believes his side’s lack of focus is more likely to come at home – something he said he would start working on in training.
“The first goal we conceded against Hull was the kind we have maybe all scored, but only once in our life,” he said.
“We conceded a goal we couldn’t do a lot about. I still think away from home we have good balance. But at home, we are not completely reassuring yet.”

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