Arsene Wenger praises Arsenal's "mental resource"

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that his side showed "great mental resource" during their 2-2 draw with Manchester City this afternoon.

The Gunners conceded inside the opening five minutes and again just before half time, but twice came from behind as goals from Theo Walcott and Shkodran Mustafi earned them a point at the Emirates.

The result leaves Arsenal still seven points adrift of the Champions League places, but Wenger believes that the manner in which they earned it could help to restore confidence following a poor spell of form.

"Mathematically, it's not the best operation today, not for City and not for us. But we have the confidence gained and we have to restart now," he told reporters.

"We started with a high level of anxiety and were punished straight away. Overall I felt it was a mental test and overall you could see the team was touched on the confidence front. The fluency of our game suffered.

"We have shown great mental resource. The worst time in a football game to concede is just before half time. On top of that, we lost [Laurent] Koscielny and in the second half we came back to 2-2. Overall it will help us to build confidence because the players certainly showed some mental strength and that will help us to come back to our natural fluency."

Arsenal host London rivals West Ham United on Wednesday night looking to end a three-match winless streak in the league.