Adebayor hails vital win

1st December 2008

Emmanuel Adebayor claims Arsenal's victory at Chelsea has "sent a message" to the rest of the Barclays Premier League that the Gunners are still very much in the title race.

Arsene Wenger's side recovered from the setback of going behind to an own goal from Johan Djourou at Stamford Bridge on Sunday when Dutchman Robin van Persie netted a second-half brace - the first with more than a hint of offside.

Their win was a first in the league since beating Manchester United on November 8, and helped claw Arsenal back to within seven points of the Blues after previous back-to-back defeats.

While Liverpool can extend that gap with victory over West Ham at Anfield on Monday, Adebayor is in no doubt the Gunners' performance was a clear signal that there is still a lot of football left in their team, and that they have regrouped following a troubled spell which saw William Gallas stripped of the captaincy after making public criticisms of the squad.

"It is a very big win because we went through a lot of difficult moments and people wrote us off in the Premiership. Now this is a message that we have sent out," Adebayor told BBC London Radio. "We believe in ourselves, we can do something.

"Forget about what happened - we are always together. We always believed we can do something and these are the kind of results we can show again."