Arsene Wenger says his side became too conservative after edging in front against Swansea claiming the desire to hold onto a 2-1 win always left them in danger of conceding an equaliser.
Mathieu Flamini’s injury-time own-goal saw Arsenal drop two valuable points right at the death and coupled with Everton’s win away at Newcastle means the Gunners are now anxiously looking over their shoulder ahead of Saturday’s game against Manchester City.
Speaking after this evening’s 2-2 draw at the Emirates the boss told press that he wasn’t disappointed by his team’s spirit but that the result hurts.
“The result is very disappointing but the spirit we put in and the effort we put in was great and we have to take it on the chin.
“We made the most difficult [part] by coming back to 2-1 and after that you could see that maybe we were too focused to keep the result and maybe too conservative because of confidence level had been affected certainly by Saturday.
“We just wanted to win the game without pushing anymore forward and a mistake happened unfortunately and it created a result we didn’t want. But overall I have to give credit to the fighting spirit and the desire we put into that game.”
Responding to suggestions his side were still struggling to overcome the 6-0 hammering by Chelsea on Saturday, Wenger continued:
“It affects us a lot because it’s of course a big disappointment. But we want to go back to focus on the next game and this result tonight hurts us a lot. Sometimes when you lose big like we did at Chelsea, the next game most of the time you get a draw.
“The way it happened of course is more frustrating because we were 2-1 up with two minutes to go and at home we have been quite solid but I think we made a mistake on the second goal and it was not needed.”
He added on the race for the title and the fight to secure a Champions League place:
“Everton won, so we have to focus and prepare well for the next game. It will be open until the end but you can still have surprises as well.
“Man City had a good result tonight, they look a bit unstoppable. They are favourites as they have two games in hand, them and Chelsea are favourites now for the title. We have not too much room to come back into it, but we have to get some players back. It is difficult to fight with half the team out.”
Hate to say it but Scholes analysis was bang on.. same old season for arsenal. Not good enough. Also an interesting point that jack welsher hasn’t improved since he was 17… its fucking true!
wilshere*
he wasnt playing and has also been out injured for most of that time
Good to see Jack still having fun on Twitter though
Hope you are being sarcy
Fuck off
I think key injuries have left us really struggling for any sort form at the moment. No Theo, No Ozil, No Ramsey – all of those players have been key to our early sucess in the season. Everyone is slating Arsene for the results, and to a degree he is to blame for not buying in January to help ease the loss of Theo’s goals which he brings to the side. I think Theo’s / Aarons goals really helped paper over how ineffective Giroud is in front of goal. Now late on in the season, without those 3 players we’re… Read more »
whats the point of saying id love to see so n so without tom dick and harry,whats the point,weve always had injury problems and always means you can forsee and prevent esp this season
Did he ever think about buying players who are not injury prone? He cant use the excuse that ‘half the team is out’ and that is why we are struggling. He put us in this position of being short benched. He should do the right thing and leave this summer, FA cup or not.
we are struggling because of Wengers transfer record over the last several years and his refusal, until last summer, to bring in established quality players. Scholes was right. We have no leaders on the pitch. Too many run around like headless chickens.
Also because Wenger is tactically inept. He never changes his game plan. Anyone who studies our style of play knows just how to come against us. City, Liverpool and Chelsea all adopted the same tactic and Wenger had no response.
Team just seemed ready to call it quits, I’m really concerned for the remainder of the season, a part of me knows we can bring it home, 4th and FA cup (success in my opinion) but the pessimist in me can’t stop feeling this is the start of a slippery slope
“The result is very disappointing but the spirit we put in and the effort we put in was great and we have to take it on the chin.”
Arsene, seriously?
Yea, and instead of chancing the 4th place this year we are now looking over the shoulder. The season what has been so much fun is turning out to be the same as every year. Just keep fecking fingers crossed we can hold the nerves and win the FA cup, just keep your fecking fingers crossed.
Chasing*
The trouble is the effort, such as it is, is unproductive. They are drained of energy and ideas and if you could offer us 4th place now, I’d take it.
Not an unlikely scenario: Lose to ManCity and then Everton away, and we drop down to fifth.
#battlefor4th is on.
Just need to beat Everton away and keep putting away smaller teams,
We are less shit than Spurs or United. Top 4 is possible.
…..And that statement shows just how far we’ve fallen since the turn of the year.
The scariest part is that we are now looking out for Everton instead of Chelsea, Liverpool or City. What a fucking joke. And it is a joke. Anyone who thinks or says otherwise is deluded. We need to revamp a bunch of things at this club. Treatment room, training ground, wages, mentality and spending power.
Is this the point at which we finally begin to get found out and all the pundits are proven right? I hope not. The early part of the season when we were winning 2-0 every game but had all our key players fit seems like a long time ago now… but shows that the strength and depth of the squad just isn’t quite there at the moment. We knew we would be vulnerable to injuries and that’s exactly how it’s panning out. Even so, COYG.
This result is a bad one and a tough one to take. We just need to get behind our team and move on to the next game, get maximum points till the end and see where it leaves us, you just never know it has been a funny season! But with the FA cup there for us to take this could be a success of a season! Also I’m going to watch Arsenal play Man city at the emirates on Saturday which is my first game at the emirates as I live up north cant wait for that one! really… Read more »
if tonight is anything to go by its gonna be a long drive home
Was like that Birmingham cup final all over again…except on a lower level of importance I guess. Need to add some serious depth this summer. 3-4 quality players.
That quote bothers me a bit. Were we ‘too conservative’ every time over the last year when we have ground out those 1-0 wins? I find it rather disconcerting that Wenger is apologizing for the tactics that have led to much of our success this/last season. We sometimes drop points and are given the explanation that we were “pushing for more goals” when we should have sat on the game. Then, when we sit on the game and try to win on the one goal lead we have (after 89 minutes no less) we are too conservative. You can’t have… Read more »
yeah i don’t think we were conservative enough. At 2-1 we should have parked the bus, not sent full backs forwards as if it was easy to get another couple of goals and not be vulnerable.
It was aimless wasn’t it? The full back were still bombing on but the midfielders were sitting deep and trying to play safe. We kept passing it around the back 4. Not real intent to get the third goal was it? Confused tactics-no clear game plan. Serves Wenger right. Hope he leaves with champions league and an a last FA cup. Bring on the era of Stojkovic.
Absolute shambles
Accident? Well, it’s certainly looking increasingly like a car crash to watch.
Oh my…Arsene losing all sense of reality!! This game was shit again. Simple as that!
NO FUCKING SHIT WENGER.. You must really like injured players because you actually had the nerve to sign one this year. If ya had rotated a bit more early on, we may not be in this situation and still fighting for the title. We are one more ‘mistake’ away from just like last year. Fighting for your beloved 4th place trophy.
Just too many injuries all the time. We even had the squad this year. We had loads of midfielders, yet they’re all fucked. Look at the players we’ve got out, if Chelsea lost that many key players they’d lose the big games too. If Ramsey had stayed fit we’d be top still. The issue is, how the fuck do we keep getting so many injuries!?
Its not difficult to deduce. AW runs his players into the ground. Doesnt rotate enough earlier in the season and doesnt build a big enough and diverse enough squad.
Where was Sanogo? Where was Gnabry? Where was Zelalem? With the squad thin to the bone and the games coming thick and fast, surely we could’ve started a few inexperience players against mid-table Swansea? I can see why Kallstrom didn’t start, but considering who we play this Saturday did it really make sense to start with basically the same crew that got physically & emotionally gangraped at Stamford Bridge 3 days earlier? Now we face a Catch 22. Do you start against Citeh with players like Cazorla, Ox, Rosicky, Giroud and Arteta who are so drained they can barely walk… Read more »
Imagine City with:Aguero, Toure, Silva and Fernandinho out for huge chunks of the season. Imagine their top scorer being out for the whole season. United lost THE CUNT, and look where they are now. He won them the league last season. Imagine Liverpool, without Suarez, Gerrard, Sturridge and Coutinho. Arsenal were still in the mix tonight. Even though we lost Theo for the whole season ( Top scorer), Ramsey( Best midfielder),Ozil( Best Creative mid), Wilshere for our toughest run of game. Also consider that we lost, Ox and Poldi for 2 months approximate too. Hard to imagine how other teams… Read more »
Well, comparing Aguero, Toure, Silva and Fernandinho with Walcott, Ramsey, Ozil and Wilshere says a lot in of itself (and I like our players!). And I’m pretty sure City would have done some January business if they knew they’d all be out, Liverpool too. Wenger knew Giroud wasn’t good enough up front in the summer and didn’t bring in a striker. He knew Walcott and Ramsey would be out in January and still, nothing! Not sure what he was expecting, except maybe a little bit more fight and belief from his players. But if he can’t get that out of… Read more »
so do you mean,, that Arsene knows who’s going to be injured during the long season going?? Is he a witch or a dark magic practitioner? someone please help me please.
No he is not, but when Theo gets and ACL injury at the start of January, your new £42mil player looks knackered, you know Wilshere is injury prone and your best player of the season has just suffered a muscular injury, you go out and get cover/replacements for them. All this info was available to Arsene during the January transfer window – if all of us could see this is January and we have never worked a day in football, how could he not? It’s a shambles, and I haven’t even mentioned our inability to bring in a striker over… Read more »
When asked what Wenger’s strongest and weakest characteristic, Vieira said the same thing for both. ”His trust in his players.” – and it is true. When you say ”Wenger knew Giroud wasn’t good enough” I don’t think he actually does. I think he believes he can be a much better Striker than he is, when clearly it doesn’t look that way. He’s a bit blinded by this faith in his squad.
Yeah, I agree with that though he did try to bring a striker in during the summer. After that failed, he convinced himself that Giroud was world class…
i shouldn’t
It’s worse than that.
Chambo was out +/- 5 months with his knee injury.
Podolski +/- 3.5 months with a hamstring injury.
Walcott missed about 2 months with an injury earlier this season, there was his stomach that needed surgery and I think there was something else, this was all before his knee injury.
Cazorla was out for a month with an ankle injury.
Ozil with his hammy.
Diaby–need I say more?
Ramsey has been out for about 3 months.
Wilshere’s ankle injury before his current foot injury.
Arteta 1 month early this season with a thigh injury.
again
whats the point of saying id love to see so n so without tom dick and harry,whats the point,weve always had injury problems and always means you can forsee and prevent esp this season
“The result is very disappointing but the spirit we put in and the effort we put in was great and we have to take it on the chin.” :O. We’ve learned nothing! The effort wasn’t great, it was woeful and against a freefalling Swansea side that scored with their first attack and whose second highest goal scorer is OG!
What a load of rubbish! We were second best in every area of the pitch for 88 minutes of the match.
The players look drained of belief. I’m not looking forward to the City game at all
Gee..you don’t say Arsene.
Same shit after every game. Great spirit bollocks. This team has zero spirit otherwise the 3 away day hammerings don’t happen. Where was the desire as stated by arteta? Why no changes ox deserved to be dropped for being so fucking gash last weekend at least
I almost got excited when I thought he said ‘we have some players back’ :'(
He does touch on something i think alot of us are overlooking in the fact we are missing 4 absolute dead cert starters two of which are absolutely crucial to the way we play. You take toure nasfuckingcuntchinwank kompany and silva from man city they struggle similar to liverpool where the fuck would they be without sturridge suarez gerrard etc this is not to excuse merely to say lets have some small perspective. In my honest opinion the moment we lost theo for the season coupled with ramseys twilight zone horror of an injury we were always fucked. Yea wilshere… Read more »
Damn it took too long to write and others made my point. ah well.
yeah but why do we always have so many injuries to key players???????
I have honestly no idea, Can’t decide whether it’s freak bad luck or some underlying problem. As i was saying to a mate earlier this week i can’t see arsene failing to utilise modern sports science to prevent it if he could. this is the guy who came to the PL and implemented diets and professionalism to unseen levels. I refuse to see how he would ignore modern changes now just because they were new to him. He is not that sort of manager.
a………oh whats the fucking point you lot refuse to see whats so friggin obvious,wenger says this same crap every injury ravaged season like its some surprise,esp title promising seasons but this one is like hes actually wumming us,if he calls anyone a LANS then you will know that wenger is in fact a troll
i´m so fed up with arsene´s quotes, it makes me sick. this is an average team of mostly average players playing some good games and some yery bad ones. we can count ourselves lucky if we crawl to fourth playe (again) and i´m definitely NOT looking forward to the Cup as we tend to crumble under a little bit of pressure as always in the last 8(!) years. if not for the favourable home games we even wouldn´t have the Cup semi to possibly cover over all the cracks. imagine Liverpool or everton away in the fa cup…..
who’s fault is it that the team is skin thin but you wenger, buy quality players!!
how can we just have 4 players out and we are weeping
it’s not a coincidence that our players get injured the way they do, u run ozil, walcott to the ground.
we still use ancient training methods in modern day football that is faster, more physical…
in short, wenger should go, he has tried, and we are grateful…but he’s like a dinosaur right now…
We have been slipping since second death run but the result that hurt us was against Stoke. Position was still salvageable had we won that one going into Chelsea and today. As it was, the lead was slender. This result is really academic. Even had we won, we were scrapping to win where the other 3 teams around us are finishing off opponents with aplomp at the business end of things. As I have mentioned consistently, I do not think we are lacking in squad strength or quality. We have sufficient numbers and contrary to the recent results, we have… Read more »
Santori….
Arent you that guy? Seriously mate, does konoplyanka suck you off?
This guy used to put “should have signed konoplyanka” on EVERY arseblog post.
Still at it, I see.
Fuck the result and the spirit, the performance was dog shit, someone remind these guys that they’re 4th in the league not 17th and not to be scared of 3 points. I try and be positive but this happens every year, whats going to change? We’ll stutter until its in everton’s hands and then react, just like every year. Sooner or later our rivals wont fuck it up. And the cup? Like today we’ll all expect a gutsy fast performance and they’ll come out like the whole world is on their shoulders. Had to vent. Come on boys, we still… Read more »
Another few days of misery for us too, id love to not care
I’m starting to get worried because Arsene seems oblivious to the fact that his tactics don’t work. Offensively we lack pressure and defensively we invite it – the worst possible combination. I just really hope Arsene goes back to the drawing board and starts from scratch when it comes to his tactics, or we can expect a right hammering from City on Sunday.
Could he stop with the “We have to give the players credit” ? No we don’t have to give them credit every time they fail to achieve the resault we need.
In the main I’ve enjoyed this season, we’ve put together a couple of impressive runs, pulled out some backs against the wall performances and been top for much of the season. However when mates of opposing teams have commented (before Christmas) about how I must be confident of winning the league I have consistently pointed at ‘Death Run 2’ as marking out the stage we would either prove our mettle or fall away, as we have in previous seasons over the last decade. The recent collapse has left me wondering whether we’ve made any real improvements at all this season… Read more »
The squad isn’t good enough to cope with so many injuries. By not buying a striker we have had to rely on our midfield so much this season and now so many of them are out injured it’s really showing.
4th place and winning the FA Cup will be a huge success compared to the last few years. The title was always a big ask but at least we’ve been close this year. Now I’m fucking terrified that we wont get neither 4th or the FA Cup. My confidence as a fan has been absolutely shot and I’m dreading Saturday.
I think if we want the title we need 5 players in this summer: 1. RB – Sagna is going, Jenkinson not good enough. 2. CB – 3CBs is not enough and Verm may leave due to lack of game time. 3. CDM – What has happened to Arteta? Remember how good his first season was? When was the last time he scored a goal like he used to. Also, his passing is not incisive at all, always sideways and backwards. Old and slow, increasingly caught out on the break. 4. Winger – Podolski performs maybe one game in three… Read more »
Craig touched on it, I have to agree, one of the toughest things is loss of confidence. As a fan, I’m finding it harder and harder to look people in the eye believing we will win a match, even Wigan is looking a tougher and tougher prospect. If the players start freewheeling it could prove mighty difficult to pick themselves up for the semi, especially taking into account the way Wigan played against Citeh!?
What I want to know – is it Wenger who is refusing to spend, or is it the board not allowing him to spend? It was always clear that we needed another striker – Arsenal teams have always relied on a top class striker – this is the first team for as long as I can remember that haven’t had one. If we had no injuries, and everyone was fit, it might’ve been possible with the likes of Ramsey and Walcott that we might’ve scraped the Premier League, but that has never happened since the start of the Wenger reign,… Read more »
GMV8 your case is heavily flawed,for example do you think wenger is given a list of players or a budget,you’ve already said budget so im reminding you of your arguments biggest flaw,wenger has already said he chose the stupid wages policy so work it out yourself, he also speaks of having restraints but he clearly means compared to oily clubs because he was given money and plenty of it because players were bought a lot were bought,,they were just sub standard,i dont need to name names as you know them, he could have gone for quality not quantity and added… Read more »
I’m not saying I have an argument one way or another – like everybody else on here I want what’s best for the club, and am just trying to figure out what’s going on. The trouble is that so many other factors were involved with when Wenger’s economy drive started clearly hurting the club – the departure of David Dein, the arrival of Kronke and Gazadis, the building of the stadium. And what is the reason behind not pumping profits back into the club? Do the board or Wenger benefit from it, because clearly the club and the fans don’t?… Read more »
Wenger out now
Teams reflect their manager. We are a neurotic mess.
Losing faith in Arsene, yeah we may secure 4th and win the FA Cup but there’s always some chronic problem with the team. I’m sick of how passive we are off the ball, the first goal their fullback just waltzes in and crosses for the goal with fuck all pressure on him. How many times have we seen that these last few years…
We are not good enough anymore where we can solely concentrate on possession, the best teams today do as much off the ball as they do with it.
Need to resolve the injury issue at our club. We have been fighting in the top of the injury leage 8 Seasons straight and winning it several times. so you can hardly call it coincidence. Hopefully we will not sign any injury Proned players either. We need players that can physically cut it in the Premier League. Signing injury Prone players is like setting up to fail. We should offload any injury Prone players that we got and build a team capable of handling the Premier League. But that being Said, players that leave Arsenal are alot less succeptible to… Read more »
I think to be honest the only thing we can take away from this season now is that we were superb for the first half when almost everyone was fit. But we’ve had some awful key injuries/lack of a world class striker who in those little away draws we’ve had could have just made the difference for us. Arguably you could say we had a kind run of fixtures for the first half of the season but our performances against Dortmund and especially Napoli said to me that this squad when all fully fit could challenge for the title.. If… Read more »
Feel bad for Flamini. Not his fault we got to this stage in such desperate measure. I don’t think its fair or particularly intelligent to criticize any of the other players for that matter (Arteta, Carzola and metersecker have all come under the firing line of the less rationale critics here) Most of the players have done sterling work throughout the campaign and it is ludicrous to indict them over the last two games. Rather much as I hate to say it, fault must be born by the gaffer for putting some things to chance where we could have added… Read more »
What separates wenger from other managers is that wenger is so stubborn, with arsenal there is always a plan A but never a plan B, when things are going bad. It’s all good and all trying to play possession football but when you watch arsenal without the ball, it seems that no one presses to win the ball back apart from rosicky (sometimes) I hate to say it but perhaps wenger’s time is up he’s just too nice and sympathetic to his players. I think a teams character and personality resembles that of its manager, if we analyse further wenger… Read more »
AW – “… but we have to get some players back. It is difficult to fight with half the team out.”
Totally agree…BUT…it’s the same every bloody season!
Once is unfortunate…twice maybe unlucky…but when you get to perhaps the 5th season in a row with the same old issues, surely then you have to question things?
When the camera zoomed in on Flamini’s face, I knew exactly what he felt.
I don’t have it in me to feel anger anymore, just a deep sense of melancholy. Is this how goes? Are we the equivalent to Icarus flying too close to the sun?
Too many of our assets are out injured and the match today just shows how shackled we are. We lack the personnel to make the usual swashbuckling passing football work.
Kallstrom looks like a pretty tidy player though. Seems to have a pretty precise pass
Injuries are also down to Wenger’s training and medical staff (http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/03/21/verheijen-tells-incompetent-wenger-arsenal-how-to-remedy-injury/) . He must go at the end of the season.
These results hurt us fan’s even more every fucking season we get so close to the title and fucking let it slip away. What makes “Hurt” even more is that us, the fans seem to know exactly what this team needs, and the guys in control of the club do not? How long have we been asking for a Midfield General? How long have we said our options are so short up front? Every fucking January us fans sit there going “OK now if we go out and buy a few fresh faces, we will be in a great position… Read more »
Oh my… As disappointed as I am and as unsettled as I am, seeing the lads crumble under pressure so often, it really puzzles me how so few in the comments section can put any perspective on the whole season. Just take a step back, breathe and look at the big picture. There were times, when everyone was hailing Giroud. I remember how everyone was afraid he might get injured for a couple of weeks because of his essential hold up play. He scored three goals in the last 5 league games. Today’s goal was his 19th for the season.… Read more »
Which forward would you want Wenger to sign in the summer??
Why is it that all arsenal players are injury prone, I mean someone really needs to explain why this happens time and time again.
Furthermore it’s fair to say now that we are truly out of the tile race, I just hope we make it in to the top 4.
Interestingly it seems that arsenal can only half a good start to a season or a good end to a season i mean there has to be a crisis at some point i for one I’m not surprised by the recent results, if anything I was expecting this.
Just not good enough. Maybe like Man U a season without European football might be a good thing, give us a chance to concentrate on just domestic competitions.ps thought Kallestrom looked ok
Us having injured players has been a forte of Arsenal teams over the years. Every year, at some point we loose key players and end up dropping points. It’s a statistic when it occurs over and over, and statistics has a real neat aspect to it seeing that with it you can counter it’s occurrence. We are either incredibly unlucky or damn cursed. Having so many players out at the same time beggars belief. Year in, year out. Arsenal will have more than one key player injured. And even if injuries pass, the time it takes for them to get… Read more »
A lot of talk about spending here but, whilst we have not matched the leaders, we have certainly spent an awful lot more than Swansea, Stoke, WBA, Southampton, each of whom have caused us such problems this season. The answer then lies in tactics. Why go to top away teams and try to outplay them from the start? Why not be pragmatic and set up to keep the ball and build our way into the game? Why start just Arteta at Chelski but he and Flamini at home to Swansea? Why allow full press when holding good score near end… Read more »
“It is difficult to fight with half the team out.”
But this is our problem every fucking season. Why Arsene why?
December 2013 – Ramsey is out for 3 weeks.
March 2014 – Ramsey is out for 2 weeks more!
wtf??
If we don’t get 4th what then? What does it bring the club? A play off game that fucks up the start of the season, and another failed attempt at getting past the last 16. It’s not like it prevents us from attracting the top players. Wel get gazzumped for anyone half decent anyway. Gazidis talked the talk last summer but there was once again no strategy in place to bring in the players we needed in the positions we were short in. And if Wenger walks, have these cretins thought about a replacement? Have they bollocks. They’re paid so… Read more »