Arsene Wenger hails his 'brilliant' Arsenal side

Arsene Wenger claimed his “brilliant“ Arsenal side have more firepower than the great Invincibles after blowing away AZ Alkmaar last night.

Two goals from captain Cesc Fabregas and strikes from Samir Nasri and Abou Diaby moved the Gunners within a point of reaching the last 16 for the 10th consecutive season.

With Andrey Arshavin also in sparkling form, Arsenal have now scored 51 goals in all competitions to extend their unbeaten run to 12 games.

And the Gunners boss reckoned he now has more attacking options than the team including Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp which went unbeaten for a season and then reached the 2006 Champions League final.

“It was a brilliant performance, we dominated technically and tactically and we were never under threat,” said the Frenchman.

“We played with a confidence, we were technically astute and overall I am very happy indeed.

“We have certainly never had so many options on the creative side. We had Bendtner, Theo Walcott, who are offensive players, not available. Denilson, Eduardo, Rosicky did not start. We have Vela as well. That is why I was amazed when people said: ’Buy, buy, buy.’

“Because Thierry was so exceptional, people think of course that when you lose a player of that calibre, you will have problems. But we had other players. Arshavin was outstanding. Our policy is to produce our own and add players of special quality and he is a good example of that.”

AZ coach Ronald Koeman, whose side scored a late consolation goal through sub Jeremain Lens, said: “Fabregas is one of the best midfielders. He is incredibly good and a very important player for them. If you still have Eduardo and Rosicky on the bench, that says enough.”

The Gunners would now need to lose at home to Standard Liege and then away to Olympiacos to fail to reach the knockout stages.

Fabregas, who has now scored eight goals this season, said: “It is not definite so we’ll have to keep working until the end. “Even if we had qualified today we would have wanted to win and have gone for the six remaining points. That is our mentality.”