Football: Wenger hails ‘one of the greatest victories’

Arsenal manager amazed after League Cup win at Reading.

READING: The League Cup may rank low on Arsene Wenger’s priority list, but the Arsenal manager said his side’s amazing fourth-round win at Reading was one of the greatest victories of his career.

Arsenal were heading out of the League Cup Tuesday evening before launching an incredible comeback from 4-0 down to progress to the quarter-finals, as they bid to end their seven-year wait for a trophy.

The 12-goal thriller at the Madejski Stadium could go down as one of the best games in English football history.

Theo Walcott inspired the amazing comeback to complete the turnaround and clinch a 7-5 win.

“We went from disaster to saving our pride,” said Wenger. “The fans stayed behind the team throughout and I have to give them credit. It was difficult to be worse in the second half than we were in the first.

“Maybe this is one of my greatest victories of my career. You cannot play for Arsenal and give up, no matter what the score.

“This [tournament] is not one of our priorities, but if we had gone out the way we played in the first-half, it would not have been one of my proudest moments as well.”

Walcott urged his Arsenal team-mates to build on the victory before heading to Old Trafford on Saturday.

“Hopefully we can take that into the Premier League,” said Walcott.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2012.