Legendary Emirates emperor Arsene Wenger today gave a ringing endorsement to Shrewsbury Town’s plucky Carling Cup heroes – and hailed the longevity of evergreen boss Graham Turner.

The Gunners chief cut a relieved figure after seeing his team progress to the last 16 at the expense of the Shropshire side, admitting his Premier League giants had ridden their luck in the opening half.

James Collins had given Shrewsbury a famous 17th minute lead, to the delight of the travelling faithful – only for hopes of an upset to be dashed by goals from Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Yossi Benayoun in a 3-1 defeat.

Wenger, who named a strong side containing six internationals, said: “I was surprised by Shrewsbury but I said before the game that the level in the lower divisions has improved vastly in the last five years and you could see that last night.

“We only got on top of them in the second half when they dropped physically. In the first half I must say congratulations to them.

“They have beaten Derby and Swansea and you can see why because they are a good side.

“They are direct but play good football and are strong up front. They scored a good goal and at 1-1 the result was not bad for us at half time.

“They had a few dangerous situations and we were a bit lucky.”

Wenger also paid tribute to Town chief Graham Turner, two years the Arsenal boss’ senior at 63.

“He’s been a long time in a manager’s job and he deserves huge respect for the kind of commitment and consistent attitude that that involves,” the Arsenal boss added.

Wenger, whose position has been under scrutiny in recent weeks, added: “A defeat would have been very bad to take for us but overall in the last four games we have had three good results.

“At 1-0 down we didn’t panic and maintained a good unity in our team play and some of the young players showed they had talent,” he summed up.