Joyous Wenger savours seven-goal salvo

Arsenal FC manager Arsène Wenger was full of enthusiasm as his young side equalled the record UEFA Champions League victory by putting seven goals past SK Slavia Praha without reply, saying the performance - that stretched their winning rule in all competitions to 12 games - was a "joy to watch". Beleaguered Slavia coach Karel Jarolím, in contrast, could not believe his side "would make it so easy" for their opponents as they slipped to their heaviest defeat in UEFA club competition.

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal manager
I feel we showed tonight the team is improving. We played at a good tempo, were very creative and looked like we were enjoying what we were doing. We kept going, the players enjoyed it and it was a joy to watch. Maybe we overplayed a little bit in parts of the game but we played a mobile, technical game. Once Theo Walcott scored we saw him a lot more. I believe he has the talent – the problem is not to hurry him too much. He has intelligence and fantastic pace but we need to be patient. What is important tonight is to praise all the players who won the game. I still think there is more to come from the team as they are all very young players.

Karel Jarolím, Slavia coach
For the first goal we let [Cesc] Fabregas take the ball, and gave him time. In the second half we wanted to finish with pride by not conceding, perhaps even scoring a goal ourselves. But it was bad as we conceded many more goals. Arsenal are a very good team and have gone [22] matches without defeat. We knew what to expect from them before the game but I didn't expect we would make it so easy for them. We could see Theo Walcott is a very talented player, very fast, and we were not able to stop him.