Wenger: 'We needed patience and intelligence'

When you win with two minutes to go it is always a relief.

We needed to be patient, intelligent and not make a mistake at the back on Saturday against a West Ham team that had a strong spirit and were well-organised.

We showed patience because in the first half it was difficult to get into the flow of our passing so we had to wait until they got a bit fatigued. West Ham kept going and we did as well. We kept the structure of our game right, we didn't do anything stupid, we kept trying to be intelligent and that in the end got us the goal with two minutes to go.

I thought we might drop points when Theo Walcott's shot hit the post and then bounced back into the goalkeeper's hands. That is usually not a good sign But we kept going and out of this game we can say we have once again shown a great attitude and we have matured. You can see that when it doesn't work for us the players remain calmer than before.

Alex Song scored and he is adding that to his game because he had three good chances on Saturday. He has got the taste to go forward, even if I think a little too much sometimes for a holding midfielder!

Denilson has had three good games in a week - he played the whole 90 minutes at Manchester City, the whole 90 minutes at Newcastle and he did quite well on Saturday because he defended very well at the moment everybody went forward. Jack Wilshere is coming back and can play with Denilson and Song. I have potential to rotate the team because we have Diaby and Ramsey to come back as well.

I am asked about the title and I believe we have a good chance but we want to show consistency first. We go step by step. I believe we still need to step up a gear to completely achieve that. But on the other hand you feel as well that there is more to come out from this team because we had strength on the bench on Saturday and we still have some players to come back.

If we can keep a good injury record then we have a chance. It's too early in the season to be sure but I have belief. We have to show we can handle every single game with the different challenges that the Premier League has. You saw on Saturday that we played against the bottom team in the Premier League and it was a real battle. We have to show we can compete like that in every game.

Of course we have now kept three clean sheets in a row. That's new for me! A day where I don't have to look on the television slow motion to see why we conceded a goal does not happen often so I am very happy with that.