A disgruntled Arsene Wenger sat down with press after Arsenal’s drab 0-0 draw with Aston Villa and made clear that he doesn’t have to justify every single decision he makes after fans criticised his choice to leave Jack Wilshere on the bench.
A small section of the travelling fans arrowed the ‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ chant in the direction of the boss when he decided to replace striker Olivier Giroud with defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin, despite the fact his team were struggling to assert themselves in the final third.
“I don’t comment [on the chants]… I do my job and do my best for the team,” he said after the match.
“Is it hurtful? Look, I have managed for 30 years at the top level and I have to convince you I can manage the team?
“How many games have you managed? I promise you if you manage one I will sit in the stands and chant ‘you know what you are doing!'”
“Jack – I decided to rest him today…in the [wet] weather like that it’s more dangerous to bring him on.
“What is the thinking behind the substitution? I will not explain every decision I make, you judge the game and I sit here and explain to you our game.
“You are all great managers! I read the newspapers every day and I can tell you that you are always great managers!”
Analysing the performance of his side, Wenger returned to his well-thumbed thesaurus of Anglo-French platitudes.
“They fought very hard and had some chances as well…we lacked a little bit accuracy in our final balls.”
“We lacked a little bit of sharpness in the final third… physically we were a little bit jaded.”
It certainly wasn’t a good day at the office but with a tough trip to Goodison Park on the agenda we’ve no time to drop our heads and mope about it. Today was poor, Wednesday has to be better.
____
Wenger quotes courtesy of @Gingers4Limpar
“You judge the game.”
Very fucking boring.
I only watched the last 10 minutes of it, i’m fairly sure i didn’t miss a classic.
You cannot question him leaving wilshere out of the team, if there is any doubt it’s not worth the risk. Anyway we should be able to beat Villa without him.
100+ thumbs up. Thank you my people.
Gutless and toothless
Oh fuck off
The last time I saw, every Arsenal player had all their teeth and they were all alive too.
Balls.
Blogs mentioned in the arsecast that he’d happily take 4 points from these 6, and I would agree with that. Beat Everton and it’ll help cleanse the taste of this draw. Nothing less will do.
we are ARSENAL. Settling for draws against Aston Villa is deeply disturbing. WE ARE ARSENAL. WE PLAY TO WIN.
i mean. to finish fourth. nowadays
WE ARE ARSENAL…WE USED TO PLAY TO WIN!… WE USED TO WIN IN STYLE!!
before, i thought 4th place was liverpool’s default position…how wrong i was about my own team. Damn!
well this is the new arsenal.
7 years we have won nothing.
every year we sell our best player and the money goes back to the board.
our aim is to just get in the top 4.
and getting a draw away to villa is a good result for the club..
thats the point it have got too.
the team is avrage.
i imagine he meant 3 pts off villa and 1 pt from everton.
He did, but we can’t be too picky of who gives us what amount, as long as the grand total is the same I’ll be happy with it.
“you judge the game”.
‘Big Deal There’s another one on Wednesday’ type of attitude is not acceptable
A wet Saturday afternoon in the Midlands. I didn’t fancy it either………..
The weather was awful. Performance average. Wouldnt be so bad but Villa are the worst team ive seen in the league this season. Defo two points lost.
Villa did well in the first half against the manchester clubs, they just did it for the whole game against us. I had a bad feeling since they just played both manchester clubs and lost, they had practise playing against better teams and that experience made them better.
That and we were poor….
If someone wants to pay me £60,000 to sit and watch Arsenal play out a nil-nil away to Villa in the rain, I’m sure I could summon up plenty of enthusiasm. But if you spend your own money, especially in the current economic climate, to travel up to the west midlands and watch football being played in that desultory a manner, I think you are entitled to express your dissappointment.
Ah, The usual lacks of our team.. That problems lie in our inability to rotate our most influential players with somebody who we can trust to bring the same impacts. How many more matches before the January windows again..
reality check.
Lol, what absolute bollocks, if it was dangerous to bring/play wilshere on a wet pitch, what was gibbs doing there when the latter is no stranger to injuries himself?
Come on wenger, the team wasn’t good enough and while you’re right in saying that you shouldn’t have to justify every single decision you make, you do however have to answer for flat performances and points dropped.
Zing!
Gibbs hadnt played in 6 weeks, Jack played 3 games in 10 days. Get it?
Doesn’t matter when you consider that gibbs is probably more injury prone then wilshere. Anyway, the entire debate is moot, ramsey had a decent game and wilshere should be eased back slowly (along with a couple of other players who should’ve been rested also).
Dont like wenger’s rational because it doesn’t make sense, don’t like the fact that we have very poor quality on the bench to change games for us when it matters, don’t like the fact that we’re so dependent on certain players and yet seemingly cannot depend on others at the same time.
Fancy playing Santi if that’s the case!
Santi wasnt out of football for 18 months. Bobs, youre the type of supporter that would be whining like a bitch if Jack started and was out for a month as a result
Who are these bullocks giving you thumps down? I completely agrees with all you statement about Wenger
Not playing Wilshere is not the issue here, everyone knows that he (and quite possibly anyone else) couldn’t and shouldn’t play every game.
The issue is that manager allowed that we’re dependant on a player, who is 20 years old and is coming back from a serious injury.
I agree Chair this is not about playing Wilshire and I am happy he is being cautious with him. This is more about not having a striker on the bench to replace a tired Giroud. Its about the same players having to start every match because we have so little quality on the bench. The way things are going Cazorla will be burned out by christmas, thats a worry,
If Giroud is tired, send Podolski or Walcott in the middle (I know Theo was injured today) since all that we’ve got is wingers and players who play deep or to the sides.
Am i the only person who thought Cazorla looked tired out against Villa? I felt we needed a player like Rosicky, or even Arshavin in the central role, to rotate out Cazorla and give him the rest he needs. I’d rather have 0% Cazorla against Villa and 100% Cazorla against the quality of Everton than have 85% Cazorla against Villa and then 70% against Everton. (The exact percentage is not the point.)
…and yet we’d all be up in arms if Wilshere wasn’t protected this season, calling Wenger a poor manager, etc.
You can’t play Wilshere every three days at this stage of his recovery.
Unimpassioned. Tired. Laboured. Uninspiring. Limp. How this team gives such diametrically opposed performances from one game to the next is beyond me.
Just shows the importance of Theo and Sagna as a unit. Jenkinson was getting lost in attack. Theo stretches teams and his crosses create chances. Shame about Wengers mistrust of Chamack the game needed another striker.
Have to agree. Jenks has been fantastic on the whole this season but can’t help feeling like he’s lost a bit if confidence since Bac has come back. Theo needs Giroud. Giroud needs Theo. Poldi isn’t up to it without more support from the others in attack. Basically we’re more of a team than previously but we live and die by our best players’ performances. If Santi and co don’t play to their usually high standards (thought he was poor today given how incredible he can be) then we’re highly likely to come up short. Reinforcements needed in Jan up… Read more »
Jenks has never been strong in attack, signature move is a backpass to arteta or mert. Considering how much goes through our right hand side it’s no wonder we struggled with jenks and ox.
I can’t believe I am saying this but I agree. I wanted to see Chamakh on the bench and sub in. He’s more than capable of playing as a sub, given our circumstances in the depth of our team. He was actually clinical against Reading, granted it was only a league cup game.
I completely agree with the decision to rest Wilshere, but unless Giroud picked up an injury, taking him off was ridculous. Aston Villa had clearly settled for a point at this stage and we were already lacking in the final third. I’m completely behind Arsene but sometimes he needs to admit to a mistake.
It looked like maybe Arsene wanted to play a tricky player like Gervinho through the middle, with other tricky players like Arshavin etc, so the thinking behind the Coquelin sub was most likely to free Arteta to push up and try to thread some passes through to them, or smash it like he does 😉 Whilst Gervinho is madly frustrating – even more confusing with his performances than Theo! – he does have it in him to cause goal scoring opportunities with his unpredictability (as he also has it in him to run it out of play…). Giroud may have… Read more »
Join this @BlackScarfAFC we want our arsenal back , the one that was invincible, the one that never went a year without winning anything
Arsenal have been a club since the 1880s and we have had lots of barren spells. Your problem is you were never around before Wenger and youve been seen the best of it. The invincibles were a once in a lifetime and you were lucky enough to get to enjoy it. Be grateful
And by the way why would you call yourself after a fucking Spud
He is a spud.
Fuck off, seriously.
We treat games like a shit gambler. Next one, I’ll double to make up for the loss!!!
Can almost understand leaving jack out with what is a supposed harder game Wednesday, but the giroud one is puzzling.
Just had no creativeness at all. Still on train heading to euston, the best part of a totally shit wet depressing fucking day.
We lacked sharpness in 30-50% of our games in thr last 3-4 seasons.
our players need to be sent to bootcamps organised by SAF and Mourinho. Maybe then these chumps will learn a thing or two about passion & committment . And grow some spines and balls.
Who do you support again?
I don’t know why all of ya are shouting ya heads off. Arsenal played really well today…unless you guys watched a totally different match from the one I watched. we were just unfortunate to have scored. Ramsey played really well.
we played well lol
what game was you watching.
i cant even remember there keeper making a good save in the game
just that one from ramsay.
apart from that it never looked like we would score.
villa looked like the one that would score but our defending was the only thing good in the game.
in most games we have played this year we have never seem great even againns the spuds yes we won 5-2.
but 11-11 spuds was winning 1-0 .
the thumbs down on your comment are really harsh. I thought we played well and controlled the game. was it good enough? no, clearly not, but fair play to you for going against the negativity.
I agree. I like your positivity 🙂 We didn’t click how we know we can, but we weren’t the shittest thing that has ever existed, we were just meh with some bright spells 😉
I was a little worried about the start for Ramsey, in such a high tempo midfield battle, but he played very well, took up some good positions, and kept the ball well. Hopefully he can string a couple of performances like this together and maybe grab a goal or two too 🙂
if anything, players like giroud, podolski and cazorla probably deserved rests as well, not logical to expect players in their debut seasons to come in and play game in game out with such huge responsibilities and not see a drop in their output, remember, we’re a giroud injury away from having gervinho back as out first CF. Nevermind wilshere for a moment, those other 3 players are just as capable of picking up injuries through fatigue and that is why you fucking spend enough to make sure that you have backups who are decent enough to come in and do… Read more »
Lacklustre and uninspired. We’ve been hit and miss this season. Progressively getting worse over the last few seasons. Wenger is responsible for a lot of this but what about Kroenke? Leadership comes from the very top Kroenke seems to offer nothing but gets away with very much. He’ll leave with a profit and that’s obviously all he cares about. But maybe we should send some questions his way as well as Wengers. Kroenke is very much letting the club and its fans down. Does he intend to do anything about it?
What the f*ck are you even on about? Gazidis doesn’t play football, nor does he manage the team.
Where was this comment after 5-2 last weekend?
Who mentioned Gazidis, you plank?
Argh, Kroenke!
The game impressed me. I feel concern 4 droping point. But half bread is better than none.
the problem aint the he rested a few players
that is normal.
we cant use the same player for every 3 days.
the problem is we have no back up.
arteta is strugging in his role.
podolzki is a goal scorer not a creative one.
giroud looked tired seeing that his played alot in the past months, yet wenger replaces him with a midfilder.
did wenger think we are going to win anything this year with 1 striker ?
I think going on about Wilshere is missing the point. We had plenty of players out there today who had sufficient class to play a team that’s shipped 8 goals in 2 games off the park. We’re getting like Liverpool – capable of a rousing performance against our rivals, mediocre the rest of the time. To an extent I’m comfortable not challenging for the Prem given the excess of Citeh and Cheslski and debt at Man Yoo but if we’re bagging £30m/season kit deals then clearly we are pitching ourselves as a top club still. Worrying that we haven’t played… Read more »
Wenger is right – he shouldn’t have to justify every decision he makes. However out of respect to every paying and travelling Arsenal supporter, perhaps if he was to inform them of his team selection the day before the game they can decide whether they are willing to part with their very hard earned money travel approximately 2 hours in the rain to watch the pile of SHIT they had to endure today by individuals who earn more in one week than the average supporter earns in 2 years. You’re quite right Mr Wenger – don’t explain yourself
You think tickets are sold a day before the game?
Righty-o…..
When will you gooners wake up, Wenger is the problem its he’s team, he bought the players and he’s had his day at Arsenal, get Pepe G’ in now, save our season and club,
Ya of course, lets get pep, cause he wants to come and we want to pay his salary. Don’t be a chav. If you don’t like it, don’t support the Arsenal. Such a twat. Fans like you are a joke.
Wenger has resigned
Ya and you got a job….
Gibbs playing yet Jack not = mistake.
Sagna on the bench? If he wasn’t injured = mistake.
If some of that new deal money that they loved shoving in our faces isn’t spent in January, especially on a striker…well that’s another huge MISTAKE!
The scum won’t always keep losing.
How many premiership teams have you successfully managed? Maybe you can apply, and on your application forms highlight all the MISTAKES Wenger keeps making and how much better you’d be in the job.
Firstly I did not say he KEEPS making mistakes.
Secondly, are you honestly saying keeping Jack on the bench helps?
Thirdly, I, nor any other mighty Gooner needs management experience to know we need another striker.
He’s right.. he shouldn’t have playws Wilshere as the last thing we need is him breaking down again and 3 games in a week is a tough ask when he’s working towards full fitness. BUT….
It is Wenger who should ensure we have ample midfield options and not rely on serial crocks like Diaby.
You don’t, under any circumstances, substitute you’re only striker and vocal point (can’t count Chamakh, clearly AW doesn’t) for a fucking defensive midfielder.
Laughably our 2 best crosses came after Giroud was subbed. One went towards Gervinho, the other Arshavin. *sigh*
vocal point – ha ha
substitute you’re only striker – ha ha
Other than that I agree with your post. We’ve had an terrible injury record for about 4-5 years. Every year we keep hearing how the players will come back but it never happens. Always about 7 out injured. Everyone forgets we have Rosicky too. He was excellent in the 2nd half of last season. But we may as well accept that him and Diaby are both fairly finished. We’ll get about 15 games a season from each of them. Can’t be relying on that.
It’s the handbrake, i hate the fucking handbrake !!!
Wonders who next manager will be now wenger has gone
Jog on. He’s gone no where you goit
All of you moaning cunts are really pissing me off. You can’t just expect to win something. We just got a massive comercial deal because we are consistently in the champions league. How can you not see what an achievement that is? You all look at Chelski and £iteh and think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Arsenal is run like a business, we have debt to pay off and we can’t spend money that isn’t there. Stop being spoilt pricks and thinking you know everything just because you’re good at Football Manager or something. This is real life… Read more »
Exactly! It’s not like anyone believes that the financial side and consistently being in the Champions League is enough on its own, but it is a fantastic base for us to compete from and something that as Gooners we should be proud of!
Thank you. Someone has to stand up to all the spoiled brats lurking around here.
Dude we are football fans and not accountants
Goit!! All over twitter he has resigned….. Would rather the board fuck off
You mean there’s a load of Twats talking complete bollocks on Twatter?
Well, colour me unsurprised.
oh how winning the champions league in 2006 could have made things so different
At least it would have kept some of these whinging little girls quiet.
Fucking Almunia.
Is AW in love with Aaron Ramsey?? Why in the F¥€£ does he play the ineffective & useless welshman over & over again??!!! Why for F¥€£ sake?? Why?!!!! We need iur best players playing in their best positions…if they are available, play them!! If they are not injured, play them!!! No time for sentiments here. Oh jerkinson havnt play much so lets play him…NO!! Oh ramsey havnt start many matches, lets play him…NO!!! Oh Wilshere abit tired, so dpnt playhim…NO!!! AW is loosing it…wats left of it! We lost two points…who’s to blame? The fixtures? Of course NOT.. the players… Read more »
Bar a few dodgy moments I thought we dominated them and always looked like we could steal it if the final pass was quality. The backlash against a point from a good team who are playing for their survival already in November…Or put another more positive way, two clean sheets in row. And yes, we need better options off the bench so spend some money. Encouraged.
I think that’s everything.
how on earth you didn’t get thumbs down, i’ll never know, but thank you for saying this
A simple green thumb did not seem to suffice in conveying my agreement to your comment, nevertheless it and this will have to do 🙂
The
Why does he keep taking Poldi off when we need a goal his record is top class.
All too familiar and frankly starting to get boring. I’ve gone from being disappointed to angry to indifferent. Bored with the mental strenffs, character, maybes, little bits. If no player is bigger than the club should the manager be?
you’re just disenchanted. Its not like we’ve lost 2 on the trot. We’ve capped off a week of 2 wins and a draw away, get over yourself. Fans like you are the reason there is discourse in the camp.
Kroenke, gazides, Ramsey, djourou, squillaci, fabianski, Mannone, santos, chamakh, all our ‘loan’ players are DOGSHIT…. Many are only ok in some games, missing all our stars & Arsene losing the plot, huge change needed, this is mid table rubbish due to all that’s been said, not spending the money we generated from selling our best players, most expensive seats in world football deserves much more than this
I don’t know why Wenger subbed out Giroud for Coquelin. That was atrocious. I have yet to hear someone justify that substitution.
pretty sure that sub moved Gervinho to CF, Ramsey to LW, and Arteta into a more attacking role while Coq went into the defensive role. It does make sense, only in the fact that Wenger seems to think Gervinho can play striker with any amount capability.
no, it was ramsey to rw and arshavin from rw to lw
The thing tat really pisses me off about the current situation is that I find myself agreeing with Piers Morgan
Had a feeling we wouldn’t get much from this game, which is pretty fucking depressing considering the opposition. Need a new striker in January…..time to open up the scrooge mc duck vault and spend some of our new moneys. Llorente will do, if we have to wheel gervinhos head around the country letting people take pictures with it to help raise the money we should do it.
Wenger is making so many bad decisions….Diaby( putting faith in his fitness ) Rosicky (new contract) RVP (selling to rival) Walcott ( just sign him up) Park (nowhere man) Chamakh (shit) Gervinho ( bambi on drugs)……time is up.
Hey you forgot Cazorla, Giroud, Podolski, Arteta, Jenkinson, Mertesacker.. .oh wait. No. They were fucking genius.
Some of those decisions were bad, but only in retrospect. RVP? What do you think we should’ve done? The only option was to let him run out his contract and then go to manure for free. Now that would’ve been true genius. Walcott? Same thing there. If he doesn’t sign, get rid. Not because we want to, but because we have to. I’m tired of all you armchair experts and your FootballManager-acquired expertise. I think that Wenger is actually the greatest asset of this club. You dont solve anything by getting rid of the one man best suitable for rectifying… Read more »
Only in retrospect???
Building our midfield squad depth with injury-prone and unproven players, is a bad decision only in retrospect? Are you Wenger in disguise? Everyone and his dog new that Diaby would NOT complete the full season, just as Rosicky wouldn’t, and Wilshere has to be given time. Ramsey has had an awful season, Cazorla is amazing but tired already, Arteta can get injured anytime and we have no cover. Coquelin is just raw.
You are the biggest armchair expert around, unless you just wind people up.
Wenger please quit
Today we looked like tired squad with a wafer-thin bench. Villa worked there asses off as well which didn’t help things for us.
On the positive side, unlike recent seasons I was all sphincter-clenched whenever they had the ball near our 18. Defensively we have improved.
But we really desperately need a deeper squad. You can almost see right through Arteta he looks so worn out.
havnt watched the match yet but to play out a nil all with an aston villa side that is just as young as ours and with our recent form. there is no excuse, quite simply a pathetic performance from arsene and the squad.
Hmmm nothing to do with Wilshire this Arsenal side is simply not good enough back four played well enough The Ox Lucas poor as good as Arteta is we will win nothing with him in the side all round back to earth with a bump. Depressing
On a side note, why can’t people get Wilshere’s name right? I’ve seen it all from Wiltshere, Wiltshire, Wilkshire, Wilkshere, Wilshire..is it that hard to get right? End of rant!
Ok The time has come for Wenger to GO all plaudits to him for what his has done for us.You may have outstayed your welcome by two seasons but thanks .Welcome in new owner Osmanov and new manger Pep with a 200 million war chest. These are my hopes prayers and dreams!!
Seriously？ You may think Pepe can bring Messi, Xavier, or Iniesta to arsenal as well? Given the limited resourse, Arsene has done a great job. Being in the CL knockout round 13 yrs in a row is not easy. Be grateful. All I hope is the broad could be more supportive in buying some world class players, then Arsene can do way better.
Man give it a rest! A draw away and you’re calling for his head already? How many times must I spell it out… 5pur2 happened again not even a week ago, and we won comfortably at home in the champions league to reach the knock out stages AGAIN, with a game in hand… What on EARTH are you complaining about????? And where are you getting all these ridiculous delusions of grandeur from? Where are you getting 200mil warchests from? And who are you to put Usmanov in charge?? Its NOT HAPPENING buddy. If you want big spending feel free to… Read more »
.And Wenger thinks we can afford to lose Theo? Wow… I know you guys made a huge effort for people not to rip on Ramsey with those stats.. but still not convinced at all he’s an arsenal player..