Reflecting on a devastating 8-2 defeat to Manchester United, Arsene Wenger spoke to Sky Sports about the result, his team’s confidence and his plans for the future.
Please bear in mind that Arsene was answering loaded questions posed by the snivelling little cunt that is Geoff Shreeves.
On the result and performance…
“It was a terrible day for us. It was a combination of weakness in certain areas and I feel as well we collapsed physically in the second half. You could see that we had not recovered completely from Wednesday night. We were as well weak in some departments and Manchester united has of course, class. Every single shot in the first half went in. In the last 2o minutes it was very difficult.”
On being humiliated…
“You always feel humiliated when you concede eight goals. We had no resources any more in the last 20 minutes. We took a gamble at 3-1, we tried desperately to come back and opened ourselves up. It made things worse and then we had ten men as well.”
On the damage it does to confidence…
“I don’t know. We don’t think about that straight after the defeat.”
On whether he will quit…
“No not at all…I believe that we have a break and we focus on our next game. What is to turn around? We have played three games in the season, two away and one at home which we lost. We have also qualified for the Champions League.”
On signings…
“I know that in England that when you lose a game the signings are always the solution. First we need to get our players back. We had eight players out today and anybody would suffer with eight players out.”
Weakness in certain areas? I wonder why that is? Hes only known for 3 years he needs some decent defenders, couldnt possibly have had time to sort it out in that short time frame
we’ll have 8 players for the next game who are like new signings!
I really hope Wenger can pull us through this shit infested pool of aids that we seem to be plunging into. Fuck knows whats happening behind the scenes. It can’t be all Wenger. I have a wierd feeling that the club were waiting to qualify for Europe before doing more business. It cant just be Wenger being tight. Do we really think he would act the same at Real, City or Men UTD? Cmon people. If Wenger got us into this he shoupd atleast be allowed to get us out. He has earned that much!
AAAAAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!!
so that means no signings…. please if you leave now, respectfuly, i will admire you for the rest of your life as a great manager who did whats best for the team by resigning, but if you dont, the fans are going to hate you until you are forced out.
I have always been a supporter of wenger, bt i think those who call for him to go will be justified tonite. The defence of even swansea was better than ours tonite.
Hopefully this will make the coach make some needed purchases.
I think those that have tolerated and made excuses might have finally lost patience, I know I have.
He can’t leave now! imagine what tould happen if we had 3 days left of the transferwindow and NO manager! It would be impossible to get new players. What he needs is to get that stick out off his a**, stop being so stubborn and start spend some fucking money!
You think that will make a difference? It was evident that this team hasn’t got the faintest fucking clue on how to defend. it wouldn’t matter if you brought in maldini and nesta and zoff and puyol in their prime.
Wenger’s ‘principles’ on display tonite. No need to change them.
I hate to say it, but instead of winning a trophy (Carling Cup), maybe this loss like this is what this Arsenal team needs to propel itself forward.
It’s over, Wengers not going to sign anyone of note. It’s d beginning of the end, I’ve lost all hope.
What an absolutely shameless and classless slag. I want him out. I want him out now. The lack of grace and dignity is absolutely astounding.
Enough with the “like a new signing” shit.
That’s getting old you know
Urggghhh, so frustrated with Wenger! What will it take for him to see that we need to buy! Can someone please bang some sense into his head! Has to be the most stubborn paid employee ever! And he owes an apology to the travelling fans. Great job guys, you were awesome. Haha, plus we were finally awarded a penalty at old trafford 🙂
Blah….Blah….Blah
I respect Wenger and admire the youth policy but this is too much. Watching Liverpool and City play, I frankly think our chances to be in top four are minimum. 3 days to go and I do not think we will sign anyone else. RvP and Walcott are going next year, if this continues. I hope wenger understands and does something. But wait he will definitely go for a bargain rather than pay top for quality. Seeing the match, just want to cry…
CUoCO Wenger, CuoCo.
Argghhhhh the same old shit he is fucking nuts seriously fucking lost it. Not recovered from Wednesday its laughable. I honestly cannot believe this.
4 or 5 of those players never even played on Wednesday.
I really feel that this can be turned around if we invest in some more youth players.
And arm
Them with sub machine guns
In 3 days we need to find a) a right back (Jenkinson is not PL-quality) b) a left back (Traore is shit and Gibbs is … well, broken) c) a creative midfielder ( we don’t have on except for Jack and his injury might be a Vermaelen one) and d) a striker. Ain’t gonna happen. Top 4? Not really…
completely agree, Jenkison has no vision and makes STUPID tackles on the edge of the area..
Man Utd bought phil jones who looked pretty good today, we bout Jenkison who is in all fairness a conference player
One bad game in trying conditions does not make Jenkinson a bad player. He shouldn’t be playing a game of this magnitude but he is premier league quality, he just doesn’t have the experience yet.
Don’t worry guys, there’s a three million pound South Korean arriving.
Shirt seller
Leave off the lad, he’s a international captain whos played in two world cups and damn sure wouldn’t simply give up like some of our lot did yesterday. Quit being such an ignorant twat.
This is a consequence of leaving the Fabregas and Na$ri deals until the end of the window as well as not making any realistic bids for new signings until there’s 2 days to go. Should never have been at Old Trafford today with a squad that threadbare. I’m not one calling for Arsene to go but he needs 2 proven centre backs NOW and after today’s performance, if he needs to pay over the odds for them, PAY IT!
You know he won’t.
Until the farce that has been the last six months I was Arsene Wenger’s biggest fan. I always, always, defended him against those who claimed he was a cheapskate and a chancer. I always told them that if it really came down to it and money NEEDED to be spent to keep our club at the top level he’d do it.
I was wrong, and they were right. Sack him.
Maybe we should get with the times, fuck the financially responsible system and find an actual sugar daddy to spend man city money to rebuild the club in Jan
absolutely spot on comments. But WHY is no-one on the board or Wenger apparently thinking the same?! This can’t go on!!
An apology to the fans? Nothing! A disgrace.
what a joke i expected a 3- or 4-0 defeat then rvp had a penalty and i thought arsenal might have a chance of nicking a draw etc then it was gone in a minute, tbf to coquelin and jenkinson they are very inexperienced and having to play at ot on your debut isn’t fair on him , but djorou is one of the worst defenders in the premier league add to that traore (the non existent left back) wenger needs to go 8-fucking 2 …………………….. ramsey begining to turn into denilson cone, snez had fits rosicky shocking and i… Read more »
only Guardiola would be good enough.
You saved me the hassle spot on, can’t even leave the house I’m fucking shocked, spend u fucking wankers
Hey, Mr wenger, just to remind you that even with 8 players out and this team is still named Arsenal FC !! You need a replicate of the first team and not a B team if you want to win silverware. Youth policy no longer pays. Pay huge money for experienced players or if you feel you cannot deliver , leave us and go to Monaco or Strasbourg.We need an ambitious manager not someone who only want to inflate shareholder’s pocket at the expense of fan’s joy. If we finish in the top 10 this season it will really be… Read more »
All the noisy fans were trying to save Arsene and Arsenal from this embarrassment. Not only do we need to strengthen the entire backline. We are in desperate need of a defensive coach. Wenger Arsenal needs experienced and quality players in the squad. Playing Mr. Scrouge is turning Arsenal into a Championship team. Time to rething your out-dated strategies – bargain bucket players just will not do.
Please, please, please save Arsenal and the few decent players in the team from further embarrassment.
I don’t blame the players (or some of them, at least) for being shit, I blame the coach for playing shit players. Jenkinson, Traore and Coquelin at Old Trafford; no matter what the injury situation that should never have happened and Wenger fucking knows it.
wheres all the ‘in arsene we trust’ groupies , i have never wanted wenger to leave (except for mourinho) but today showed how bad the situation has actually gotten a confrence team could of done better then us today, its not even about getting new players its the defensive coaches i would love too see in action at the training ground, we need 2 new fullbacks jenkinson is a pile of shit and ive been saying that for a long time i dont understand why we got him have we not got any right backs in the reserves??? djouro is… Read more »
Give mean break on the loaded question snipe. Arsene Wener deserves every last loaded question asked of him. He deserves no less. The club is in shambles and in danger of being set back 10 years and you’re complaining that a journalist asked some leading questions?
The result today was Wenger’s project taken to its logical conclusion. An emphasis on young and physically small players prone to injury. His formula can not fix this, because no good player will choose to play for us if we keep playing like this. Kroenke has to pay over the ends for good players (should spend on hazard, don’t break the bank for crap like jagielka), but even still top 4 will be a miracle this season. We have too many holes to plug.
To have the monstrous arrogance to come out with the ‘I know in England….’ comment after that total debacle, one of the worst defeats in the history of AFC coupled with our worst ever start to a season… how dare he. Really, how dare he insult us once again. That alone should be a sackable offence.
I said this would happen and you all called me miserable, I’m glad this happened, I said play any real quality and we’d be destroyed, I don’t care how many players were out, they are being paid thousands of pounds per week and are wearing the arsenal shirt. They have no fucking pride whatsoever. We just lost 8-2 against Manchester united and I saw players walking off laughing like it’s funny, Patrick vieira, Thierry Henry, Dennis bergkamp etc would NEEEEEEVER have walked off the pitch laughing after losing like that. Not one of thise pricks who played today are not… Read more »
the chuckling and smiles after the whistle really bothered me. get a little fucking self-respect.
who were the players?? i saw traore give a lil smile which made me seethe with anger but tbh my brain was frozen in shock after the game so i cudnt completely comprehend wtf was happening
True and are most shit player taore the wanker
Would someone punch wenger in his balls.
“I know that in England that when you lose a game the signings are always the solution.”
Oh yes, for Wenger, playing academy players is the solution. Fuck off!!
I didn’t share some of the optomism before this fixture. Wednesday was a great result and performance but this isn’t Roy of Rovers. You can’t go to OT with half a team and expect to get anything but a mauling. Hell, even with a fully fit team (without Cesc and Nasri) it would be a really really tough game. Lets Be realistic though; Wenger isn’t going anywhere and if he did, who could come in and make the necessary changes to personel in the 3 days left in the TW? The thing that worries me the most is our form… Read more »
On a positive note Arsenal look like topping the bad discipline table again.
yaay! *weeps*
So that’s the Europa League fair play route out too then?
We’re definately out of the top 4 this year for sure.
seriously what the fuck is wrong with wenger??
if he still can’t see what this team requires then I’m afraid he will have to go.
as is the history of this club in the past decade,a club icon has left in acrimonious circumstances.
Henry,fabregas,pires,viera..
and the current climate seems much more doom and doom..
On a more serious note what the fuck we gonna sing when the transfer window shuts Wednesday. No more spend some fucking money can be sung till January grr
Simple: “Where’s the fucking money?”
Wenger MUST reveal his restrictions to buying/refusing to pay high wages by the board. This is a similar situation to Liverpool when the two Americans were ripping their club apart but Rafa got all the blame instead. Same is happening at Arsenal where the board are against each other but, as Wenger cannot do his job properly, Arsene gets all the blame. So for those who say sack Wenger also name his replacement because I assure you Wenger haters he is doing more than one job at Arsenal, he not just a football manager like when he was when Dein… Read more »
Stan Kroenke never ‘invested’ in Arsenal: he traded some stocks, shares, bonds, and God-knows-what-else for the majority of AFC’s shares. And he did this in the hope of (a) the value of those shares increasing so he could sell them on later for a hefty profit, and (b) that the ‘self-sustaining model’ could be maintained and healthy profits be extracted from the club in the form of dividends, thus giving him an additional ‘return on investment’. Kroenke trades stocks and shares in sports franchises like others trade currencies or government bonds. He is a shark. And like the rest of… Read more »
PS I agree the focus of criticism should be with the board. Until we know who is responsible for overseeing the progressive depletion of the playing squad–(I find it hard to believe Wenger, or any football manager, actively conspires to weaken their team)–then I think Wenger should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Kroenke and Gazidis, however, are another matter entirely.
PPS Gazidis is worth investigating. Like Kroenke, his experience is in the US, establishing the MLS ‘franchise’. Hardly the stuff for the EPL, but exactly the kind of figure that Kroenke would want as his ‘man in London’.
Wenger himself has said he has money to spend and only super quality wil dol. Super quality like jenkinson and this no name korean.
If not wenger than who? WTF? WTF?
It doesn’t matter does it.
I’m done agonizing over it. Otherwise i’ll have an ulcer.
He says he WANTS ‘super-quality’. That doesn’t mean he GETS ‘super-quality’. $tan and Ollie look after that (or fail to look after it, that is) and instead just bring him his youngsters-for-future while NOT delivering any of the ‘super-quality’ he also asked for. $tan and Ollie are asset-strippers. Only problem is, there will soon be no assets left to strip.
DAVE: Remember that Dein was ousted because he wanted to bring in $tan Kroenke. It’s as much the arrival of Mr Walmart that started the decline as it is the departure of Dein.
I thought he was ousted because he wanted to bring in the Russian, which is why he left, sold his shares to the Russian, and began working for him.
Rectum: If memory serves me well, Dein courted Kroenke, got evicted for his troubles, and only much later game back with the Uzbeki Bullfrog in tow having sold the remainder of his shares to him. But it’s late and my memory ain’t as good as it used to be. I’m sure someone else will be able to confirm/clarify.
feel so sick hate fucking arsenal runing my day and weekend
I love AW but that was just humiliating. No excuses.
I fear that is the end of the Wenger era. Too late in this transfer window of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a change in January. I suspect this is why the club is so reluctant to spend, they’re stockpiling for a new manager.
I mean 8 fucking 2. That’s just unforgiveable. The way things are, we need a serious upturn in form to make midtable.
I have always supported Arsene but he has to accept that this defeat is his own doing. From creating an atmosphere where the players won’t tell another if he’s not doing his job, to leaving the squad threadbare. It’s just not fare on the young players like Jenks, coquelin, Lansbury, ox-chambermaid to throw them in to this shambles with no guidance. Arshavin is a disgrace, I thought he was playing to get sold at one stage. I feel ashamed of the club tonight and that’s not happened before.
At least well have to sign some players now…..won’t we???
oh at least the womans team won
You ain’t fooling no-one anymore Arsene. Stop taking us for cunts and walk. When do we say enough is enough?
I hate how Wenger says “we only want to buy players to improve the squad” so he’s telling me he cant find anyone better than Ashavin, Rosicky, Djou, Traore, Jenkinson, etc…? all we needed was to replace cesc and nasri and sort out the defense and we would be able to carry on our title challege like last season… now for some strange reason were so much weaker than last year? crazy old man. Btw did anyone see the only moment A OX Chamberlain got on the ball? looked pretty exciting, skinned two players and was unlucky with his last… Read more »
Did you see his little face coming on? Looked so nervous, and who wouldn’t be if asked at 18 years old in their first game to save their shite team-mates at Old Trafford?
oh fuck off you twat
The problem is not new. We all cried for new signings last year especially in defence and again in January…and they ignored the fans and frankly every other person in the world including cesc and nasri. That penny-pinching cost four trophies last season. And here we go again. The crazy thing is that any half-decent businessman (which is what the board and wenger fancy themselves to be) would know that bringing in silverware is good business, there are windfalls left right and centre (manu?). So the idiot that is trying to make money by saving money and selling the best… Read more »
The reality is that this scenario was ominously predictable the day the fixture list was published.
There has not been a Football Club so comprehensively mismanaged since Leeds United 2003 (for different reasons).
Big club? Please… Arsenal are now in decline and will remain so forever unless they change their philosophy of running the business.
If that doesn’t change, in ten years Emirates Stadium will become a white elephant – half full every week watching a mid table team whose one ambition is to avoid relegation by April.
There now has to be a new era ushered in at Arsenal. The club is rotten stale unfortunately. Wenger should have the humility and dignity to resign. Who replaces him is an entirely moot point; we need a change. The question is, will Kroenke, Gazidis etc. go shopping in the bargain bin for a manager like they do with players?
Terrible result and completely avoidable had Wenger spent sooner. However there has to be something else to this. More to the point people, get some perspective here. Look at the number of players we had missing today and some of the players who stepped into the breach (Traore for one was absolutely abysmal). Don’t blame Wenger. Keep the faith!
are you kidding he signed all them players its his team you muppet
Oh an one other thing. Kroenke is a fucking disaster. Only we could bring in a sugar daddy who sells our best players an invests fuck all. He can fuck right off and take that cunt Gazidis with him.
Bring back Dein and give Usmanov a go. At least he vaguely supports the club.
It’s no coincidence that since Dein went we have become a laughing stock. Blaming the manager is futile, our board is the worst in the league.
what is wenger doing. i bet na$ri is laughing his head off right now.
Good times and bad. That’s what it was when I signed up for this and nothing’s changed. There’s a long season ahead and since all I can do is lend my support that’s what Arsenal will get. Always.
You are noble, eleanor. We all feel this way, I think, we’re just venting.
Hopefully, there are massive protests against Wenger and the board. Our righteous frustration needs to be transmitted to those in charge. We should show the world that Arsenal fans are passionate and demand change.
Who should replace Wenger?: Ancelotti, Van Gaal, Roberto Martinez, Jurgen Klopp, Laurent Blanc, Didier Deschamps, or someone we’ve never heard of. But we shouldn’t replace Wenger until we get an owner who doesn’t mind splashing the cash. Without money, Arsenal FC will be an Everton.
To Dave:
If u go to OT, with a depleted team, the least you’ll ask your team to do is defend! Park the bus and we might have been spanked 5-2 instead of 8!!! Especially after Jenkinson got sent off. We were never going to comeback, damage limitation should have been the plan.
Wenger takes full responsibility for this mess, with his super quality signings! Our CB’s were more experienced than Utd’s but u wouldn’t have guessed! the whole team is cack & it’s Wengers team!!
How can u play an inexperienced, unknown, 19yr old right back bought for £1m against Ashley Young at Old Trafford and not expect to get your pants not just pulled down but torn clean off you and then shoved back up your arse? Man U had Vidic, Ferdinand and Fabio out but who did they have to cover? Smalling, Jones and Evans.
I wonder what Daglish meant when he said a good team doesn’t win titles a good sqaud does. mmmh.
I seriously dont think, even if we buy 3 or 4 players, our situation would improve. Except Vermalen, Sagna and Kos all the other defenders are not good enough to play regularly. And we have seen, we dont have any player in the midfield who can turn the game for us. And we seriously lack some variety in our strikers department. I fear we would end up being out of the top 6.
My sentiments exactly!
i think all us supporters who pay money to watch that crap should march on the club asap wenger out
I agree some sort of march needs to happen, perhaps not to get Wenger out as i think he still has a part to play in this and I don’t really know who would be a realistic replacement for Wenger at this time, a lot of the best coaches are all established in their current teams.
I think the march should be for ridiculous ticket prices and to spend some fucking money before 5pm on wednesday