Arsenal boss Wenger beams: I told you so!

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was beaming with pride after their 6-1 thrashing of Everton.

Wenger said: "I was surprised by the result, especially at Goodison. Everton were not at the level we usually face. The international week clearly disrupted them and their preparation.

"But we showed cohesion, attitude, team spirit and desire to play together, all these things were the reasons that we won.

"We have lost two good players, two great players (in Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor) in the summer to Manchester City, but when great players leave that allows space for other players to come in and prove they are good enough.

"People have been writing us off. But what is important is not what others say, but what we do.

"From being told we were not competitive before the game to now being told we are super-favourites is strange. But it is right to say that this is just the first game and we aim to continue to give our best.

"We have matured and this is a good basis to continue like that and to show what we want to do.

"Before the game we were seemingly being ruled out by everybody, and now we have won 6-1 there are two very big extremes.

"We are told we do not have the squad, well we want to show that we do have the squad."

He added: "Everton were not at their usual standards. But we did take every chance that came our way in the first half. They seemed flat, physically, usually their energy level is very high.

"That was not there and we were able to dominate physically from the start."