Gallas: Arsenal are not divided

After late goals from Robin van Persie and Alexander Hleb helped Arsenal snatch a 2-1 win against Fulham at Emirates Stadium, Gallas explained he detected a shift in the mood among players during the pre-season.

The Gunners skipper, who joined from Chelsea a year ago, said: "When I came here the one thing I wanted to do was win. Last year was not easy because we had too many injuries and this year everything has changed.

"I can tell you it changed from pre-season - how the players train, how they fight on the pitch, and when I saw that I said, 'we will do something'."

The Frenchman believes the fightback will enable Arsenal to lay down a marker to their title rivals.

He said: "We showed everybody we can fight. Maybe something will happen this year. Maybe we can win something, I don't know. The squad are very compact. They want to win. They want to fight. They want to go back home and enjoy it. If you want to have that, you have to work very hard on the pitch.

"Last season, we drew our first game and that happened a lot last season. This year, we take three points. It was very important to win this game because we don't play in the Premier League on Wednesday which means we will have three points less."

In a public show of unity, Gallas called the players together for a post-match huddle seconds after the final whistle.

He explained: "We don't have to show everybody we're together, only for Arsenal.

"In pre-season we spoke a lot about that. We have to be compact, we have to play together. If we win, we win together. If we lose, we lose together.

"Today, I feel we were a little bit nervous. I know game by game we will play better, score a lot of goals and not [have to] fight how we fought today. I know if we play our football, everything will be okay."

The game was his first since being appointed captain by Arsene Wenger on Thursday.

Gallas said: "When he said 'you will be captain' I was very proud and said 'thank you'. I didn't think about being captain but, trust me, I'm happy.

"I'm 30 years old. I have experience and I have to speak with the young players to give them good advice.

"I don't have to shout because they know what they have to do. I have only to speak with them, that's it. For me the most important thing is the squad, it is not to be captain. I'm very proud to be captain of Arsenal because before me you had [Patrick] Vieira and Tony Adams."

The greatest thorn in Arsenal's side was Fulham's replacement goalkeeper Tony Warner, who only knew he would be playing 20 minutes before the start after Antti Niemi injured himself during the warm-up.

Warner pulled off a string of fine saves before his resistance was finally broken by Van Persie's penalty after Kolo Toure was impeded by Carlos Bocanegra.

"I thought it was a bit harsh. There were a few penalty appeals early on where there were dives. I thought he just ran into the player," said Warner.

There was a brief melee as the Arsenal players tried to get the ball back to the centre circle, which resulted in cautions for Warner, team-mate Papa Bouba Diop and Arsenal's Mathieu Flamini.

The Fulham goalkeeper said: "They wanted to get the ball up the pitch. As far as I'm concerned, when we concede the goal it's our ball as it's our kick-off. There was a conflict of opinions.

"They were a little bit keen but that's football. You expect it."