Football
Kevin Palmer 9y

Arsenal must 'earn the right to win' vs. Manchester United, says Jack Wilshere

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has insisted the Gunners will travel to face Manchester United at Old Trafford this weekend in a confident mood, despite their 1-0 home defeat against Swansea.

United will move a point ahead of Arsenal in the Premier League standings if they beat the Gunners on Sunday and, though Arsene Wenger's men still have a game in hand, Wilshere accepts they need to rebound quickly after their 11-game unbeaten run came to an end Monday.

Arsenal beat United in an FA Cup quarterfinal at Old Trafford in March, and Wilshere hopes the memories of that victory will inspire the Gunners as they search for a Champions League-clinching win in Manchester.

"We've been there in the FA Cup this season and won, so we know what it takes," Wilshere told the Arsenal website.

"Our confidence will be high going there but we've got to perform. It's no good just going there thinking that we can beat them again because we've beaten them before. We've got to put in a performance, work hard and earn the right to win."

Wilshere made his first home appearance since late November, coming off the bench against Swansea on Monday. It was his 150th appearance for the club.

"It's great to be back, especially at the Emirates. I came back last week, played 30 minutes at Hull, but it's always special to get back in front of your own fans. It felt good tonight."

Wilshere insisted there was no need for Arsenal to panic after their defeat against Swansea, as he suggested the fine display of former Gunners keeper Lukasz Fabianski in the opposition goal was decisive in swinging the game in their favour.

"I thought Fabianski was brilliant," he added. "In the second half we created a few chances that we should be scoring, but Fabianski was there and he's been fantastic for them this year.

"I'm happy for him. He's been my friend for a good number of years while we were at Arsenal. He's grown as a player and seems to be growing as a person as well, and I'm happy for him.

"When he was at Arsenal you could always tell that he was going to be special. I played with him for two years and sometimes with him it was maybe a little bit mental but it seems like he's sorted that out and he's a top-class goalkeeper. Luckily for them he was on form tonight.

"We've got to take the positives. We'll look back at the game during the week and we'll see where we should have scored. We switched off towards the end for a couple of minutes and we got punished," he continued. "If we look back at the 90 minutes, we mostly dominated the game so we can take the positives and we'll learn from this."

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