Arsene Wenger was relieved to pick up all three points against Queens Park Rangers, with Mikel Arteta scoring a late winner, and with it ending the Gunners' run of two straight defeats.
"I am very happy with the result because we lost two big games in our head, and the confidence was a bit jaded," Wenger said. "We were serious, we moved the ball quite well and we needed to be patient today.
"It is a QPR team with quality, I don't think they will stay at the bottom (of the league). It was important not to make a mistake, and wait for our chance and take it.
"We were a bit lucky that they lost a player, because it made it easier for us in the last 20 minutes. But overall we played a serious game against a good team."
Wenger revealed he only let Jack Wilshere know he was starting the game in the morning of the fixture - with the youngster responding brilliantly with a wonderful display. "I told him he was playing at 10.30am today," the manager said. "Sometimes I think it is better when you don't have much time to think about it when you have been out for a long time.
"I made the decision without telling him because when you have not played for such a long time it is not always easy to deal with that and there is a high level of expectation when he goes on the pitch. I also felt the confidence of the team was a bit jaded and sometimes players with experience and quality give a bit of a lift as well.
"You could see technically he is there, and he gave everything, and what he is missing he will get through competition. He still misses a bit of the pace of the game, the rhythm of the game, but overall what he did was class."
Wilshere stood up well to some robust challenges from the QPR players - a rather nasty one to ankle by Esteban Granero particularly causing a few more worry lines to crease across everyone's faces -- but Wenger refused to admit the rival team had targeted the young midfielder.
"QPR knew they had to be completely committed to stop us from playing, they did that well," he said. "In midfield they have good players -- Diakite and Granero are good footballers. I don't think they especially wanted to kick him.
"Yes, (I was worried after Granero's challenge). After 17 months, you hope he is not back to what happened before. The referee was in a good position, I thought it was a very hard tackle but he decided not to give him a yellow card.
"Afterwards he gave a red to (Stephane) Mbia, I think he deserved it. But overall he had a good game."
Wenger also revealed Bacary Sagna had no problems after playing the full 90 minutes on his first appearance this season. "He did well," Wenger added. "He is ready physically, he was not out as long as Jack and he has no problem."
