Wenger: Rosicky was our Bergkamp

The Czech midfielder gave an excellent goalscoring display with the legendary Dutchman in attendance

Arsene Wenger has likened Tomas Rosicky’s virtuoso performance in Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Sunderland to that of Gunners legend Dennis Bergkamp.

The influential Czech playmaker netted a contender for goal of the season on Saturday afternoon, with his clever dinked finish the culmination of a sequence of flicks and first-times passes.

Bergkamp, who spent 11 seasons in north London, was in attendance at Emirates Stadium for the unveiling of a statue in his honour and Wenger is sure the Dutchman would have enjoyed Rosicky’s display.

“I think we scored two great Arsenal goals. One of them being scored by Olivier Giroud, one of them by Rosicky,” the French manager told reporters.

“I am very pleased for Rosicky, because today Bergkamp got the statue and I think Rosicky took on the role of Bergkamp today, because he scored a goal as well.

“Certainly Dennis would have been pleased to see him play.”

Giroud netted twice before Rosicky grabbed Arsenal’s third of the game on the stroke of half-time, with Laurent Koscielny also getting on the scoresheet – though Emanuele Giaccherini netted late on to end a run of 537 minutes without conceding a league goal at the Emirates.

After the disappointment of losing 2-0 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Wenger felt his side’s convincing and comfortable win was the perfect tonic to a difficult week.

“We had a very demanding week, physically and mentally and we gave the right response today,” continued the Arsenal boss.

“Against Bayern Munich, the target was to have a good performance and a good result. We had a good performance but were very frustrated with the result.

“But we had to transfer the positives from that game, and the belief, and overall we believe we’ll still have a go at Bayern and we have shown today we are capable of responding.”

Wenger confirmed that Koscielny picked up a back problem, Jack Wilshere has a tight hamstring and Nacho Monreal has injured his foot – though all three are expected to be available for next week.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.