"I have heard many things in the press, many people have been talking about me but I have proved everyone wrong," saidArsenal's defiant derby hero. "I had a point to prove."
And Mathieu Flamini certainly said something with two goals in a 2-1 cup win at Tottenham, although quite what the point was, and whether it did prove everyone wrong and will have any material effect on his future at Arsenal, is more difficult to establish.
Certainly, if there is one player in the Arsenal squad able to divine the true importance of scoring two goals in such a game - other than Theo Walcott, who has history in goading Spurs - it is surely Flamini. And you could tell how affected he was by events on a stirring night at White Hart Lane.
After his first goal, a cool finish at the Tottenham end afterMichel Vorm had spilled Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's shot, Flamini stood in defiance, inviting the home supporters to shower him with invective as he almost sneered at them. It needed a team-mate or two to pull him away.
His second, scored at the away end, was a superbly-executed volley from 20 yards which he thumped into the bottom corner of the net after the ball had looped up offFederico Fazio and dropped perfectly into his stride. This time nothing was held back as he exploded with joy in front of the travelling Arsenal support. It meant a lot to him as he kissed the badge on his chest, and to them. A deep connection was restored.
Now in his second spell for the club, spread over 11 years, Flamini is the only member of the squad to have played at Highbury, to have shared a dressing room with Patrick Vieira. He is an unlikely link to the glorious recent past that Arsenal still yearn for, even if he is not himself an embodiment of it.
Despite this status as the club's most senior player, Flamini was almost forgotten this summer. When Arsenal neglected to sign a new defensive midfielder it was widely lamented that they had left Francis Coquelin exposed as their only option in the destroyer role. Flamini barely entered into the equation.
It was as if it had been decided that his Arsenal career was finished, whether or not he secured the move the club were trying to engineer for him before the window closed. His failure to get a second of action before Wednesday night merely confirmed such suspicions.
And, let's be honest here, despite his two-goal heroics he is certain to take a back seat again when the younger and more talented Coquelin returns from injury. The forgotten man of Arsenal reminded everyone of his presence with his utterly illogical two-goal performance - but for how long?
Flamini is not in the team to score life-affirming 20-yard volleys, let alone bag two goals in one game, and it will take more than one brilliant, beguiling, match-winning performance against Tottenham in the League Cup to convince Wenger he is a valid option in bigger games.
His regression over the course of last season, and his inability to conjoin effectively with players of the talent of Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla, will guard against such a conclusion. He could well disappear before our eyes once more.
“You don’t expect Flamini to score two goals," said Wenger with a flourish of understatement, "but he was certainly frustrated for a long time ...
" He is a fighter and a winner as well. I told him at the start of the season it might be difficult for him to be a starter but he decided to stay."
It is surely conceivable th
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