Flamini - Our self-belief is just growing and growing



Mathieu Flamini feels Arsenal’s belief in their title-winning credentials is growing all the time.

The midfield dynamo helped Arsène Wenger’s side to a dramatic 1-0 win over Chelsea at Emirates Stadium. It was a major fillip for Arsenal after last week’s defeat at Middlesbrough, it also sent them back to the top of the table after Manchester United’s victory at Liverpool on Sunday had seen them temporarily takeover. Flamini feels they can stay there.

“Since the start [of the season] we have believed we can do it,” he said. “And we get more belief all the time. This win over Chelsea showed we can beat the big teams in England.

“It was a very difficult game, but we knew that before. We needed to be strong and we knew we would have a chance to score. We controlled the game even if, at the end, they had a few chances.

“Chelsea are a strong team and defend well. We were trying to play our game, but had to be very strong first. If you do not win the fight in this kind of game, you cannot play your football. We scored just before half-time and after that tried to control the game.”


[Linked Image] The win means Arsenal have now been top of the Premier League for three months. In Flamini’s eyes, they have the strength and spirit to cope with the rigours of a title-winning campaign.

“Man United had won again, so we had to win,” he said. “It was important to stay in the title race. We’d lost against Boro because maybe we were a bit tired. Everybody else thought we could not do it today, but we did it because we were strong.

“We had proven against Villa and in other games away [that we could fight], and we did it again today. We won the battles and at the end we played our own game. The team spirit was fantastic again and when you see that on the pitch, you believe we can win every game.”