Of course it's not our game plan but we've been playing every 3 days since mid December(?), we're not going to be at our best every week and you have to accept that and you need the underlying quality of your squad and the character of the players to prove the difference at times like this. The fact that we were able to beat a decent, in form Arsenal side while not being close to our best and to ultimately win it fairly comfortably is testament to the quality and character of our side. In the first 45 minutes Arsenal were very solid and compact, preventing us from really getting going in attack and were able to spring attacks on us but it amounted to nothing because once they got past our midfield they come up against an unreal back line and when Thiago makes that mistake to gift them a chance, we've got that beautiful bearded Brazilian in goal.
There will be games to come, away at City and against the better sides remaining in the CL where we'll need to perform better than we did yesterday but it's reassuring that we're no longer a side that has to be at our absolute best to win games, which we were 4-5 years ago. It's also pretty daunting for sides coming up against us to know that even if we're not at our best and they perform well, they've still got a massive battle on their hands to take anything from us.
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