Arsene Wenger has defended Bolton after the Gunners picked up an important 2-0 victory at the Reebok Stadium yesterday. Corners of the media suggested that Bolton had been focusing on injuring Cesc Fabregas.

"Sometimes it looked, from the outside, that he got harshly treated. That is linked with gifted players," Wenger said.

"It is difficult to take the ball off them but he is the guy who touches the ball more than anyone else so it is not illogical the opposition should try to stop him playing.

"We expected a fully-committed Bolton team and we were not disappointed.

"They gave absolutely everything and put us under pressure a lot but we tried to put the ball down and play, sometimes it worked very well during spells in the first half.

"I expected them to drop a little bit at the beginning of the second half as we dropped our level but they had a period for 20 minutes when they had chances and looked dangerous because we lost too many balls in midfield.

"It was important for us not to get to the last 15 minutes only one goal up and the second goal killed the game."