Arsene Wenger says Arsenal’s busy schedule didn’t help their preparations for today’s game at Manchester City but refused to use it as an excuse for the drubbing handed to them by Manuel Pellegrini’s side.
Having arrived back in the UK early on Thursday morning after Wednesday night’s game in Naples, today’s match at the Etihad represented a third tough game in just six days. Speaking after the game the boss reflected:
“I don’t want to look for excuses after a defeat like that but it didn’t help. You know take any team you play Sunday afternoon, Wednesday away in the Champions League and Saturday morning away in league you are under threat.
“I said before the game I will not use it as an excuse and I don’t want to do it now. But it was not ideal, you could see that we were not as fresh as we should be for a big game.”
Having watched his side suffer at the hands of poor officiating throughout the game, the boss did aim both barrels at the referee and his flag happy assistants.
“I think we had three real offsides which were not turned down and the penalty turned down. The referee had a bad game.”
“It was a difficult game. We had the best defence in the Premier League and we conceded many goals today. Honestly, we could have scored at least six as well. It was for me a very open game but on our front I think we made too many mistakes. Our strengths until now was our defensive discipline and that went as the game went on.
“In the second half the regret I have is at 2-1 we make it 3-1, after we come back to 3-2 we make it 4-2 and always through easy mistakes. We were in a position where we could see the legs were tired a little bit and we had to run after the score. You have always more chances to lose more than to comeback because we had tired legs.
“In the end it was 6-3 but hurts me more is that we had an opportunity to put Man City at nine points and they are three tonight. That is very difficult to swallow because it’s a team that was not unbeatable today [Man City].”
Theo is the word for clinical
That’s the positive from today, that Theo is back scoring again. That Manc-Reporter-Cunt in the Guardian was saying his first was fortunate but that’s complete and utter bullshit.
Fuck City. Three points against Chelsea is a must now–time for Wenger to bust the Mourinho hoodoo.
We can’t let this game ruin our good momentum. Yes it was a shite result. Yes we really should have done better, but if the fans start getting on the players backs it’s only going to make things worse. Especially that Ozil situation, he didn’t applaud the fans, get over it. We need to rest up and keep our focus, because City may be beasts at home, but they are horrendous away and we need to capitalize on those mistakes. I hate to say it but i agree three points at chelsea is a must now.
We would’ve won today if we had stayed disciplined. The midfield just forgot to defend. Didn’t bother at all to come back once they had a lead. Really poor from flamini and wilshere and ramsey
Individual stinkers were the order of the day today. Monreal, kozzer, Wilshere, ozil, Flamini and Giroud all had their worst games this season and with a city side like this there’s likely to follow punishment. The last thing we need to do is unsettle Ozil you can’t blame him if he doesn’t like to lose but really dont be pettu and focus soley on that. the game is lost not coz we were bad. chelsea is in for a beating you heard it here first.
Positive = Theo for sure. He adds a totally different dimension.
After thinking on it for a few hours, I wonder if this adversity is not the worst thing for the players. Ozil already put that overblown issue to bed (no doubt due to Per and others chiding him a bit).
I think we’ll forget that loss and reload for the next set of important matches. It would be a shame to waste the great start to the season.
His pace is trully something else. the way he got on the end of that Bendtner pass was impressive. definite back on RW for keeps!
List of forwards in leading teams and comparison with ours …
Man City – Aguero and Negredo
Man Utd – RVP and Rooney
Chelsea – Ba and Torres
Barcelona – Messi and Neymar
Real Madrid – Benzema and Christiano
Athletico Madrid – David Villa and Deigo Costa
PSG – Cavani and Ibrahimovic
Bayern Munich – Robben and Ribery
Borussia Dortmund – Lewandowski
Arsenal – Giroud and ??
Nothing more to say … we need some heavy weight strikers to deliver silverware…
Is it just me or was the commentary just a fucking disgrace today?
5 game changing decisions all against us, I should probably point them out 1. Monreal collected a pass from the left side having the goal in sight or set up a tap in but was ruled offside(replay pointed onside) 2. Theo walcott put through still in the first half and would have surely set up another tap in but he was adjudged offside(replay showed he was absolutely on) 3. Girouds goal in the 2nd half but was also adjudged off(replay showed he was level with the last city defender) 4. Pablo zabaleta clearly handled the ball inside the box but… Read more »
I agree wholeheartedly mate. I understand that we are doing our utmost not to provide any excuses, but my God we need to support these players. We can’t slam the players for bad performances. When you are almost on the deck from commercially induced tiredness at the Etihad [of all places], and denied 5 clear decisions at CRUCIAL moments OF COURSE you will make individual mistakes – can anyone not understand that? The media will fail to use any logic when it comes to us. They prefer the team that cost a billion pounds to win. It is curious that… Read more »
This is the tackle I’m on about, not mentioned in any match report I’ve seen/heard:
https://vine.co/v/h2IlOxJE1x1
And FFS, has anyone seen/heard Danny Mills commentate on our matches. He sounds like someone who…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhR-WnafzoE
Agree with you but Ozil was from a team that benefited from official favouritism back in Spain. It must have been a culture shock for him.
Bizarre game really..Most players just didn’t bother defending..Jack and Monreal will come in for some stick..but even Aaaron despite been one of our better player didn’t bother defending that much..Also its not often that you come away from a game conceding 6 goals wishing you had a better striker..Like Giroud but there are limitations to his game which get badly exposed against the big teams..Still top of the table though..Beat Chelsea and will be forgotten
We need our own yaya(diaby) back, fit and playing week in week out, if kangaroo placenta is what it’s gonna take, then so be it, or we go into the market for one
I too was thinking how badly we missed Diaby. His physical presence was missed.
My biggest regret is that we were so, so unbalanced today. We’ve improved massively at it over the last year, but today our midfield players basically just said to Touré and Fernandinho: “Yeah sure, run at our back 4, no problem! And any second ball is yours as well!”
Just focus on resting and go all out for the Chelsea game , no other option left. COYG
Very poor performance. Not like Arsenal at all. We looked the best team that has visited the ethihad and they didn’t look unbeatable by any stretch of imagination. Don’t know what nacho was doing. The Brazilian left back never played again after having a very similar game.
Difficult game. Not making excuses but if the referee had been on top of it (perhaps less partial?), it may have been a slightly different game.
On a brighter note, I just saw this — love the expression on the players’ faces when asked about the German chef:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/wKhaZiHUXoA
The quiet trend in this season, barring the opening day defeat, is that the underlying causes for our dropped points so far point to isolated, specific variables and not to any glaring or fundamental flaws in the team itself. We’ll bounce back from this quickly.
Perhaps.
But if I was our nr.19,I’d pack my bags tonight and fly one-way to Spain, from where I can blackmail my way out of the contract – before I’m treated like a new Arshavin.
Thankfully, you’re not our no. 19.
I don’t get it. Are you all brain-dead zombies?
If he’s not being utilised, what’s the use?
Hence, thankfully – for whom exactly?
This team should face chelsea
shezzny,sagna,BFG,boss,gibbs,arteta,ramsey,ozil,carzola,rosicky,theo
subs. Fab,verm,mon,flame,giroud,gnabry,jenk or bendtner. Theo must lead the line against the team he loves scoring against
City’s movement up top was a nightmare to defend against. Their full backs were always high up the pitch and we seemed unsure who’s run to go with. It shows the need for a more mobile striker in games like today, giroud was ok, but if we had Suarez it’d have been a different game, we need giroud but we have to have a top class striker to complement him and who can assist himself/turn a game with a bit of individual brilliance, which he can’t. . Maybe, just maybe, Madrid let Ozil go because he can disappear in big… Read more »
We,r still on top and have 9 days rest before we beat Chelsea
It would have been a different game with a different set of officials. Not much more to say than that accept that we should have played much better.
Well in to big Mert at the end of the game giving Ozil a bollocking.
Exactly. I dont get whats wrong with saying that. We played quite bad and scored three goals. Was it not for the officials we would have had more. And they wouldve had less. The officials completely changed the game. I dont remember seeing a game where a team lost by three goals and had four fantastic chances called falsely offside. Four. Ugh. I guess there is nothing to do but move on.
Are we being too harsh on the linesmen? After 92 minutes of spineless cuntism they decided to abandon their policy of listening to 45,000 bandwagon hopping cunts bark out offsides at will, and with the game gone, one of these 2 spineless cunts said to himself ‘for the remaining 2 minutes, i will cease to be a spineless cunt’ and allowed per’s goal to stand. This could be a crucial goal come May and we could well have to raise a glass to these 2 spineless cunts.
Whats up with all the post about ozil getting a mouthful from BFG..?? was that really about ozil not applauding away fans??
Wenger never learns does he. Why not bring on Arteta for Flamini. It was to early to go all out. Made the same mistakes against Utd in the 8-2.
Ozil just disappears in the big games. He tracks people well but then lets them pass him as if he werent there.
The WHOLE team needs to be able to defend.
Dont get me wrong Ozil’s stats are great but so were Theo’s last year and he went missing in matches.
Ozil, together with our nr.19 are the best attacking players we have – and among the best that we’ve ever had. Every true footballing man should be thankful for this, everyday.
Ozil may be the most talented player we’ve ever had but he’s been here 2 months. He was outshone by the City midfield and was one of our poorest performers on the day. These big matches are the moments that fans remember and where Club greats are made.
Dont use that patronising ” true footballing man” like you invented football.
I didn’t invent football. But, unluckily for you, every true footballing man would agree with me though 😉
Again, I didn’t even say he’s the most talented one.
All I said is that players of his ilk come sparingly, and football purists wouldn’t use the form of criticism that you use.
I just cant . You cant just call yourself a football purist and say other people arent. Get a life
I can easily say you know toss all about football and claim it as a fact. Your argument has no basis. Goodbye
This was a bizarre game because to be honest we created chances at will. At will. Giroud was profligate, the ref hated us and we still got 3! Even the most optimistic gooner must concede that giroud is a concern (still a below average finisher) and wilshere is truly struggling for form. As for nacho well it is one thing coming on for 20 minutes and another turning up for 90 against a top class attack. Anyway, details aside it is hard to believe we will hold city off this season. Not impossible but hard. Positives? Theo!
I’m so disappointed, we are so much better than this….fatigue? fixture list? mental block? combination of the three? why can’t we remedy this already
..Arsenal till I die!!
Crazy, crazy game, could have been 7-7! Credit where it’s due, city have some exceptional players and looked dangerous every time they came forward, BUT we looked well dodgy in midfield today. Wilshere had a really poor game similar to his performance against Everton and I was surprised he stayed on to be honest, still a great player and still only 22, he’s just in a run of rotten form. We gave the ball away cheaply throughout the team today as well, and city exploited it every time. As for the officials they were just fucking awful, 3 or 4… Read more »
Also, why are there no excuses? If mourinho, or ferguson had to play city two and a half days after a midweek CL game they’d go fucking potty, and rightly so. It’s madness, and fatigue was a huge factor in today’s performance
This is very true .. There are lots of excuses the refereeing was a bit odd at times .. Milner falls on ScZ foot after losing ball and that’s a penalty? Zabaleta (accidently)blocks a pass in penaltybox and stops a goalscoring oppurtinity and thats no penalty..? One goal disallowed for Offside wich should have stood .. and 2 other wrongful offside decisions when we had goal-scoring chances. But lets give some credit to City as well ..They have the best squad in the premiere league by far but still Pellegrini has turned them into a serious team. I think City… Read more »
Bendtner
Walcott gnabry
Ozil
Flamini ramsey
Gibbs sagna
Vermaelen mert
Szescney
This should be used against chelsea…
I would prefer to see Ozil rested. Give Cazorla a start down the middle
Wenger please play Podolski up front. He can finish off chances very well.
The schedule most certainly is an excuse. The players looked very tired in that last 20 minutes, and no wonder having played a tough game on Sunday then away in Italy on Wednesday. That schedule fucked us over and handed City an unfair advantage. This game should have been the 4 pm kick-off tomorrow. Wenger has some tough decisions to make now: for me, Wilshere looks well out of form and can’t justify his selection. Ramsey was poor today, too. We seem to have forgotten how to do the basics in midfield, like retain possession and protect the back for… Read more »
Agree with all of that. Absolutely no reason why it could not have been played tomorrow or even Monday evening. The players looked fucked and as a result made costly errors. We had a perfectly legitimate goal ruled offside, an equally legitimate claim for a penalty turned down and several offsides that never were that could have led to further goals.
A striker and cb should be a must in the transfer window.
And what has happened to Jack?
His having a Ramsey season I.e. still getting over a tough injury problem that jhas seen lesser players crumble), similar to Ozil having a bergkamp season (I.e. playing well enough, but you know there is a lot more to come as he better understands the English game.
Even if we win nothing this season, I still think our star is rising
Guys even FatGooner is making sense right now. The players were knackered and the officials didn’t help us one bit. City are still Shitty away from home, and this break has come at the perfect time for us. Knowing City, they will drop points at a rejuvenated Fulham next week and Chelsea look so vulnerable right now. Chelsea have only ONE clean sheet in their last ELEVEN games. This is not a typical Mourinho team, they are weak defensively and don’t have a cunt of a striker like Drogba who will cause us too much trouble. They players will rest… Read more »
Completely agree with almost all of what you’ve said. Though I didn’t think Ramsey was bad – he had a key pass that lead to a goal and an assist to his name. He just had no support in midfield with Wilshere really having an atrocious game. He’s tired though, and that’s down to the ridiculous schedule and having played almost every minute of this season barring about 80 minutes. I love Giroud and all he does for the team beyond just scoring goals – but at the end of the day he’s a striker and his primary responsibility is… Read more »
Mesut Özil
Sorry I didn’t thank the fans at the end of the game!
You have been brilliant to me and I know you had travelled a long way and spent your money to support us. I was upset with the result and know I should have come to you to say ‘thank you’ and I know it is a big Arsenal tradition win, lose or draw.
He posted that on his Facebook.
oh well! 9 days to work on it. good news is ashley cole has just got a new phone so may be unavailable next game.
I think the warning signs were there against Everton last week when we seemed happy to let them run at our back 4. Worrying to see it again today but we have to learn from it and move on. No more trips to Manchester and still top. We’re still fighting for this title!
Quite a hard defeat to take despite the fact that City were a better team. We looked capable of matching them most of the match but we sadly seem to have awoken the Arsenal of the old during the match. 4 of the 6 conceded were because of us shooting ourselves in the foot. We followed the same routine and City closed us off in midfield not once, not twice but every time we tried to move it forward. Wilshere and Monreal had shockers. What happened to Gibbs? He wasn’t even on the bench. The spirit of Clichy seemed to… Read more »
Before we start jumping off bridges lets look at the situation. No matter what we will get to the 23rd in first place. We win on the 23rd against Moron-ho & company we should enter 2014 in 1st place. The rest of the league has to catch us. That includes the biter, Van Pussy et al. Next time we face ManC it will be on our turf and we all know they are a different team away from home. I just think we are in a good position. The schedule this past week may not be an excuse but I… Read more »
We lost this one purely due to cunty officiating and terrible individual errors.Flamini,wilshere,monreal all culpable today. i just would have loved to keep the scoreline respectable. Chelsea are gonna encounter us at the right time. Theo firing!
Anyone who thinks this performance will ruin us is a fool. I think we looked like champions today and I know we messed up. We are still head and shoulders better than the rest and Martin Atkinson is a cock
Lot of similarities in this game as with the first of the season including costly officiating, We thought it a disaster but then played two London rivals and a North-east side after which things felt a lot better.
My thoughts of the game were as such. 1) Wenger made a tactical mistake in failing to field both Flamini AND Arteta in midfield. Arteta’s absence was painfully obvious, as we simply didn’t have a pivot at the base of our midfield to keep possession. Too often, our players had no one to pass back to in the middle of the pitch when they were under pressure. Flamini, tough, snappy, glorious hard man that he is, just doesn’t have the same tactical discipline and nous that Arteta has. When the Flamster embarked on his forays forward, the likes of Jack… Read more »
Refs were sold out. Sorry to say it, I know it’s low for any gooner to say this, but they were! 6 key goal scoring chances were denied to us today! 6! Fucking 6! And yaya’s tackle on giroud should have resulted in a straight red. We were robbed. Fucking robbed.
But he made it an excuse. he should have been very firm with the message that we have no time for tiredness. The noise coming out from the squad (Arteta’s complain) was not a good sign. Too many players ambling back or moving forward at pedastrian pace in support of the player with the ball today. Of course flip side is Wenger failed to perform necessary tactical adjustments yet again in timely manner exposing his weakness against the bigger teams. He flatters to decieve at times because he has been good in the market. Monreal was poor out left and… Read more »
The refs were poor so were our players and tatics.We failed to play a compact midfield against a free scoring side. We lost this match because we were willing to and the refs assisted.
I think the scariest thing I took away from the game is that all those stats guys seem to be right. Man city have better underlying stats than us and their horrible away form was due to individual errors. Remember how we’ve been praising Chesney? His made crucial saves in many games and have contributed to our “best defence in the league”. Without those crucial saves, our defensive stats are average. We saw that today. I’m not puting blame on him btw. I am a big Chesney fan. We definitely need to get a back-up to Giroud. Even better, why… Read more »
Olivier giroud is incompetent he should not play against CFC if we are to get any thing from that match so lazy & not good enough for title challenger like us! pls gimme NB23 I beg!
We need better striker urgently cos giroud is too poor,anyway thank jesus is jenuary,Ba or any decent one will do us FUCK CHELSEA & SHITTY
My major concern is that Wenger is about to sign a new contract for the next three years very shortly. You can take positives from our performance so far but the real point of judgement come in May and if, once again he has failed to deliver then it is time to move on – yesterday was an appalling result and personally I would like to see Wlshere moved on and a top quality, proven striker bought in. Wilshere does nothing for me…
The officials may have loaded the gun, but we shot ourselves in the foot.
Also, I really don’t see the problem with Wilshire letting the city fans know we’re still 1st in the league (that clearly was what he was doing right?)
*Wilshere (my bad)
Schedule is not an excuse, but it certainly contributes to problems.
Look anyone that has to travel for work can feel sorry for this bunch. I wouldn’t want to fly home on the 4am flight and then take a long trip up north the day after to play out a match at noon.