Wenger hails strong Gunners

Arsene Wenger praised the "mental strength" of his Arsenal side as they returned to winning ways following a 2-1 victory over Bolton.

The Gunners had to once again come from behind at Emirates Stadium, after Nicolas Anelka had netted against his old club, but Tomas Rosicky levelled and Cesc Fabregas struck just 44 seconds after the restart to turn the match in the home side's favour.

Wenger said: "It is a big step. To lose the game would have put us in a bad situation. I feel I am happy with the performance of the team and happy with the mental strength we have shown because we were 1-0 down and we come back to win."

He added: "I got a quick response and we got chance after chance, and in fairness we outplayed Bolton through the pace of our passing.

"But overall, scoring 2-1 in the second half, we had a handbrake on our finishing after that and that is maybe why we did not score three or four."

It has been a difficult couple of months for Arsenal, who lost the Carling Cup final to Chelsea and then crashed out of both the FA Cup and Champions League.

Captain Thierry Henry, fellow marksmen Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott are all out injured, adding to Wenger's problems, his side having failed to win for the previous four games.

"With a team you live in a tunnel and sometimes you have to experience going down and flirting with Hell to see how much you can deal with that to become stronger," Wenger said.

"We had a disappointing three or four weeks and I am very well with how the team has responded.

"I respect the way they have behaved in the last three weeks, even if they were most painful three weeks of the season."