Arsene Wenger says he’s pleased with his squad’s attitude this season but admits he harbours frustration that Arsenal couldn’t maintain their title challenge after topping the Premier League for 120 days.
The Gunners delivered a low key 1-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion this afternoon to take their points tally for the season to 76 points; a gap of just four points on the leaders which had the boss lamenting what might have been.
“I’m happy with the attitude, the behaviour and the consistency of my players,” he told press after the last home game of the season.
“I’m frustrated as well because we were 120 days top of the league. When you look today it’s very tight and then comes through your mind here and there the points you dropped that we should not have dropped.
“The regret as well is at the most important period of the season we had two important players out. We have many players who have only played between five and 15 games. That’s where we want to improve for next season.”
Pinpointing a general lack of goals and his side’s defeats at their rivals as decisive factors he continued:
“I would just say to be brutal in our first analysis is we missed a few goals compared to the teams who scored the most goals and we missed some big away games by conceding two many.
“Apart from that our defensive stability was fantastic, we had 16 clean sheets but in some games we were not at the start of the game and we couldn’t get into them before we lost it. The defensive stability we had the whole season was not reflected in these kind of games.
“If you look at the overall performance of the team we have done until today well in the cup, we have done quite well in the Champions League where we had a difficult group, we played against Bayern with ten men and we didn’t fail anywhere.
“The attitude of the group was remarkably consistent and of quality. But we still have missed something to be decisive in the Premier League at the moment when we were in a good position.”
Pressed on the subject of his future, Wenger once again stressed that he’ll be at the helm come the new season joking:
“Look at me! You will see me again.”
That’s 8 points we should have won even with injuries and spectacular defeats to peer rivals in March. 1) Stoke 2) Swansea 3) Everton Maybe if we had something different up top added in January, we could have snatched the extra goal or two to make the diff. Truth be told, the strikers on offer in January were scant. Pato would have seem to me a worthwhile gamble on loan with option to buy. He adds the variation we need being quick and tricky plus he was not cup tied for CL. It would have been without exposure to Wenger… Read more »
Santori -Pato’s agent in disguise
And Seamus Coleman’s agent. Don’t forget Seamus Coleman.
I agree with Stoke, Swansea but even full strength going to Everton away is a tough ask for a win.
But yep them 5 points would have us on 81 probably meaning we would have been 2 points short.
I think he’s referring to Everton at home. Really should have held on for the win in that match.
Hard to see how doing better in the transfer window would have affected the Everton match – it was played in December.
It is easy to point at the *easy* games we should have won, but we were the most consistent team in the league against lower table opposition and no team goes the whole season without dropping some points here and there.
What really killed us were the “top” teams, not only could we have taken more points, we could have taken points away from them. I could be wrong but this season felt like the worst I’ve seen against the top four sides (+United).
“Truth be told, the strikers on offer in January were scant.”
The strikers the previous summer were not though. That is were Arsenal cocked up!
So near…. Sigh!
I personally blame poor performances against the top teams in the BPL, and I think he should ask himself why we are not able to perform against the top teams in the league. If you wanna win the league, you’ll have to beat your competition.. Which we have not done this season.
Not really.
Had we edged those 3 games I mentioned, we would have won the league.
And I reckon most teams in this league had matches they could have won but they didn’t and the fact remains we have been consistent and won a large majority of our matches against the teams in the 5-20 positions and lost against the top teams. That’s why we lost the league, awful performances against top teams.
Mentality and commitment needs to be raised, we didn’t even turn up for the Chelsea and Liverpool games..
Captain Hindsight/Santori, Every club in the top four can look at certain games that were close and say thats where we went wrong. I don’t understand how you don’t see the importance in beating your nearest rivals. It’s surely more important to beat teams around you in the league as points gained in these games are points missed out on by your rivals. I like your positivity but it would be very naive of the manager and players if they took your attitude and swept those drubbings under the carpet as irrelevant. Were making steady progress but still have plenty… Read more »
Agree. The two points we dropped at home to Swansea were a side-effect of the hiding we took from Chelsea, if I remember correctly, so you can’t really compartmentalize the season into games against the top four and games against everybody else. It’s all of a piece. The confidence that would have come with winning or even drawing the Liverpool/City/Chelsea away games might well have won us the “easy” games we threw away too. And we wouldn’t have gone up to Everton shitting ourselves either.
After the City drubbing we drew with Chelsea at home and after the Liverpool game we drew with the worse United team in 25 years. The effects of those drubbings on confidence morale etc were clearly felt for at least one game after.
BPL? BPL? What is this BPL of which you speak?
It’s not Barclays Premier League atleast.
I think Blogs was the first to point it out, that we haven’t lost to a top side at home. Man $ity, Chel$ki, Everton, Manure all draws, Liverpool and Sp*rs we won. It’s our away form against top sides that’s poor. So it’s not that we aren’t good enough to win those games. Also, against the top four teams Chel$ki have picked up 16 points, Man $ity 7, Liverpool 6, Arsenal 5. So Chel$ki are far and away the best against the top teams, but they’re not going to win the league, because they’ve been mediocre against everyone else. So… Read more »
The worrying thing is not those loses, it happened, it is in the past we moved on now. The worrying thing is The Manager is not going to do anything about it, or is he?. Every season HE and WE know the problem, but he seems to NEVER tell us what he is going to do about it!!!!!. The excuses started with stability, the world cup, we can’t sing anyone until after 15th of July, then the player going in holiday, after that it would be we are looking for top top top quality and the market is quiet. Now… Read more »
100% Correct, it’s a story we’ve seen several times before and we all know the script. Here’s a man paid several million pounds a year to come up with solutions to problems that arise and he hasn’t in the last 8-9 years. That’s what management is!!!
The excuses are just that, excuses and if he can’t find a way do his job he should quit and let somebody else have a go.
We never showed up in the big games away from home! We should understand that we always have to keep things close and not try to dominate possessions against our rivals away from home, we should learn to use the athletico madrid tactic(especially when we play our rivals away from home) its not parking the bus, they are not like chelsea, they try to dominate the game in a clever way and try to impose their game on their rival at a point in match unlike chelsea who only hope on mistakes from their opponents.. I mean we all know… Read more »
It isn’t dominating possession that we tried to do against our rivals away from home. We tried to play a high line against a team that had pace – which is stupid.
I think every club in the top four can look at games they should have won and lament for points dropped due to sloppiness/temporary incompetence-we’re not alone in that. Take away the heavy away defeats and it’s been a very good season. Should we win the FA Cup it’ll be a marked improvement. Address the issues with the away day nerves (I really think it is predominantly a psychological issue) and bring in some solid reinforcements and we’ll do alright. I can live without winning trophies if we’re at least competing again. Forward.
Nerves/Tactics, what’s the difference?
Either the players were completely naïve, or Wenger was. For years the way to beat Arsenal was to press high up the pitch and attack quick on the counter, and we fell for it again, and again, and again, and one more time. This year Wenger built a team that was amazingly consistent against inferior opposition and completely incompetent against the good sides, apart from a few games (Liverpool at home, Napoli at home).
I hope we improve next year, and I’ll support Wenger, but I can’t say I’m optimistic.
If the players are naive, who would be at fault there? Maybe the person who sent them on the pitch without a game plan?
‘too’ not ‘two’ at the end of a quote there blogs
Thank fuck Arsene is staying.
Until Klopp is available, I want him to stay put.
a decent season (assuming we lift the FA Cup). Regroup and do the transfer business before the World Cup! We need a CB, holding mid, RB, GK, and a striker! That’s a big list.
What does everyone feel about Remy? I like him, but wonder if we could go after someone better…
Unfortunately I doubt we will get half those …
Well at the same age Giroud gets the starts, subs, and stats all ahead of Remy for France. But that could be down to type of player. Remy seems to have a little more pace and feet, but hard to say if he’s got the cold, killer finishing and true alternative style we’d all like to see.
I saw this quote, which Arseblog news might have missed…
“We had injures – three or four players who missed too many games. And in some games, at the start away from home, we were caught by surprise. We were perhaps too cautious and not confident enough. We paid a heavy price for it.”
I think Wenger got confused and should have said “We were perhaps too confident and not cautious enough.”
Even with new players I still wonder if anything will really change, players change but the fragility is always there.
I don’t wonder. I know. Haven’t we all seen this movie enough times now?
Bollocks up the transfer window – check
Don’t strengthen enough – check
Injuries to key players around Dec – Feb – check
As a result of the small squad, the injuries take their toll on results – check
And I haven’t even gotten into the non-existent tactics.
All for a princely sum of 7.5 million a year.
Rinse – repeat the following year.
We need to drop the mentality of trying to dominate possession in every game, I’m ok with dominating possession at home but not away from home against our main rivals they have the quality to hit us on the counter unlike the average teams! We need to let them have possession and hit them on the counter, hey I’m not saying we should give away the ball whenever we are in possession of it I’m just saying we shouldnt be obsessed with always having the ball even if we have no use for it, I’m also very happy we now… Read more »
Can’t help but feel it’s all a bit of an anti climax. Why on earth he didn’t sign a striker last summer is beyond me. Even on loan, remy? I know he was accused of rape but innocent until proven guilty. Rvp had a similar allegation in his early years with us. Giroud has done well but with competition and pressure what’s to say he couldn’t have done even better? To expect him to change now, go out and put things right this summer and quickly, just isn’t going to happen. Watch our rivals sign their targets before the world… Read more »
It’s not clear whether Wenger dithers over the price, or if he just can’t make up his mind and act decisively. I think he lets his doubts affect his judgment and is afraid to take any risks. This mentality is reflected in a team that would rather pass the ball sideways or backwards than to take on an opponent. Why is that? Has all of the risk-taking been coached out of the team? Think about it, Always picks the same team Substitutions at 70 minutes Tactics never change Focus on possession Make sure there is money in the bank Wenger… Read more »
Who’s to say Mr Wenger isn’t just playing it low key, stating two or three players to the press, to then actually go and blow £100 million on additions to the team who bring that something extra. A couple of if’s and buts, but, Wilshere, Diaby, could be this coming summers sleeve tearing two ‘new signings’ – Wilshere’s performances in the last couple of seasons haven’t come close to the player we all know he can be, he might even do an English Jesus and excel beyond his previous best, adding goals galore, which would be nice. Diaby on the… Read more »
It has still been a much better season than the past two, we’ve all seen glimpses of what this side can do (v Norwich, Napoli & Sunderland). Hopefully, a summer of stability will allow these performances to occur more regularly.
we have never had a problem with away days before it was only a couple years ago that we beat Chelsea and Liverpool anyway from home, and hadn’t lost an away games in however many matches. So I don’t see it being an issue next season but they were mad results, considering we went on to beat liverpool for the second time this season a few days later.
away from home*
No matter. The away capitulation did not make sense.
That was a Chelsea coached by Andre Villas Boas in his first few months there, and a struggling Liverpool FC in their Europa League days.
“Wenger is a specialist in failure” Now thats the ranting of a scared person. He knows he cant touch Wenger’s invincibility and status as legend.In the future it will be Abrohimobitch who will be credited for Chelseas change in fortunes. Maureen will be forgotten. On the other hand, the man who is responsible for Arsenals change in fortunes and kept his job throughout maintaining champions league qualification on much less resources and responsable for the transformation to a new stadium with financial expertise AND being unbeatable is the real legend that will be known by my great grand children when… Read more »
Of course they won’t remember the man who has won countless titles and also won the CL with moneybags Porto.
Look I dislike that classless cunt as much as the next human being, but what you’re writing is just wishful thinking.
I’m wishing for it.
Don’t do it to yourself Arsene, just make the most of the transfer window and prepare for next season.
Hes adamancy to buy astriker in january costed us much
Wenger reminds me of my 15 year old son.always full of excuses and never is his fault.
Stoke and Swansea definitely hurts, but in truth we should of won the home games against Manure, Chel$ki and $hitty… Even after the nightmare of March Madness , still would of been top .
Wenger just doesn’t get it, does he? It’s always worth having a good look at the Premier League table towards the end of the season: it never, ever lies. Today’s table brutally exposes exactly what was wrong with this campaign: we just didn’t score enough goals. Our defending has overall been excellent. We’ve conceded 41 goals in our 37 games. And when you consider that we let in a total of 17 of those goals in the three away matches against City, Chelsea and Liverpool, you have to say that we’ve generally been excellent at the back. But we just… Read more »
Cant really argue with you on this one sadly… No signings in january i get cause the quality is not there but the summer we could of got a striker… There again maybe Wenger has something lined up perhaps the board was happy with the Ozil signing who knows..
I agree a lot more on that front could of been done
Negligent maybe. Criminally incompetent no. Certainly isn’t incompetent maintaining a top 4 finish for 17 seasons. Certainly not negligent in reconstructing the team with panic buys like Arteta, Metersecker, Koscielny, Giroud Podolski Maybe not as astute tactically against the better teams and certainly a little naive with selection where he gets away against poorer quality. But not incompetent in market rather he missed the mark last summer. As I have explained, Wenger knew Ozil may come available at end of window and did ground work behind the scenes before that (if you think we are the only potential destination for… Read more »
Thanks for proving my point, Santori. WE DIDN’T NEED OZIL! What was the point of holding on to 40+ million waiting for a player who we didn’t need? THE PRIORITY WAS TO BRING IN A STRIKER! Or even two, to be honest. Ozil was a luxury. We already had half-a-dozen very good attacking midfielders. The transfer activity last summer just summed up Wenger’s incompetence: he should have snapped up Higuain or Suarez and then worried about addressing the other positions. And if we were gonna buy a midfielder then it should have been a top-quality defensive one – that’s another… Read more »
“Our defending has overall been excellent … you have to say that we’ve generally been excellent at the back.”
” …if we were gonna buy a midfielder then it should have been a top-quality defensive one – that’s another glaring weakness in the team.”
No prizes for guessing where those quotes come from.
that’s too long a post when you barely have any substantive disagreement with fatgooner. I think you don’t like him.
Look Fats, you need a reality check.
If Wenger is incompetent, then Moyes is bacteria and Pardew is a molecule.
BUT, they are pro managers, not armchair bloggers, keyboard warriors and internet avatars.
Truth is they know more about football than you plus or the guys on your friends list put together.
How can observers like us ever understand football more than these people who coach, plan eat breathe football everyday?
So has some perspective in your comments. Anyone can be critical, but hold back that abuse please.
Your argument about not buying a striker applies to Chel$ki as well. Except Chel$ki spent £115m on transfers this season alone, and still couldn’t find a decent striker. And how often has Maureen complained about not having a striker? So it’s not quite as easy as you make it out to be. And the January window is far harder. Who is going to loan out a decent striker, comparable to Walcott in quality (since you say Wenger needed to find a replacement for him), in the middle of the season? “Think about those games against Everton (home), Stoke (away), Swansea… Read more »
I don’t understand how injuries can be a reason/excuse every year for losing games. It is part of squad management to plan for injuries, isn’t it? And it’s not like we have been bit by “the mysterious injury bug” for the first time, is it?
I think we are desperately unlucky this season.
We lost Podolski, Walcott, OX and Carzola out in succession, within the first 3 games.
That’s ALL our flank players out on long term injuries. And they are not strains and what not’s from over playing since it is first 3 games.
Facts are we were best perfoming team in the whole of the PL during calender year 2013 -14. We messed up badly in tough schedule for 2 months but remain not so far away from the leaders. Unlike Liverpool,Chelsea, Man united, Everton and Spurs we have good chance of silverware this season. Yes we need striker but lets not get too depressed. We have not been that bad just ask Moyes.
This is reconstruction that has been in process for 3 -4 seasons now. Wenger realised his mistake depending on Academy products. He started bringing in experience through the ranks. but it unfortunately coincided with loss of critical players (2 every season) which meant one step forward one step back. First it was the departure of Nasri, Fabregas (one could argue it started with Flamini, Hleb), then we had RVP, Song. What we brought in to reinforce the team was negated by key departures and this was just pre stadium rights renegotiation etc. We should have turned the corner this season… Read more »
“So it isn’t quite as easy as adding players galore.”
Man City don’t seem to have any trouble doing it …
That’s because they are banked by a small country, producing vast amounts of oil….
And their FFP punishment awaits.
(Maybe.)
No maybe’s. The fine is fifty million pounds, and they face an 18 or 21 man restriction on their CL squad. Plus, something like 16 million of the CL money is going to be withheld.
Agree with you Santori. It’s worth taking a look at the following link – http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer-league-table-2003-to-date.html Arsenal have a nett spend in the transfer market of £17m over the last 10 years (including £42m for Ozil), this comes at a time when we have built a new stadium and have been tied into a number of financial deals. To consistently maintain a position in the top 4 when other teams have been spending huge sums in quite amazing. Spending money is not what it’s all about – coaching and player development are important – to get the best out talent that… Read more »
I suggest people read the transcript of the interview, where he talks about much more: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140504/wenger-on-the-win-season-and-the-future on whether he regrets not buying another striker… No the regret is not there because we missed offensive players at an important part of the season. The solution is not always outside, the solution is as well inside your club where the disadvantage of having many injuries is you always have to play the same players. Then of course they score less goals because they are a bit jaded. on his own future… No, don’t be impatient. My last time will come! You will… Read more »
Thanks for that quote. Its ridiculous, and bare faced twisting of facts, putting the injuries both as the cause of not signing and as the cause of not scoring, as well as the reason for overplaying players.
Wenger talks some real shit sometimes (I’m not AKB or Wenger Out Brigade).
Well I hardly think he’s going to open up every last fact to every weasel question the hack press ask.
Do you think any other managers would come to a presser and say ‘yes, that was a massive failure. I only hope you, the press, can find it in your dusty, hollow hearts to forgive me’?
Just a few weeks ago a hack tried to bait him with a lie about a player being unsettled. Why bother telling bloodsuckers like that anything?
well, its too late now, lets just see next season, if all our players are fit, God help us and we add some new players (quality) next season will be better, monsier Wenger. And lets face it, if the players like (wallcott, wilshere, ozil, ramsey and others that were always in, out, in, out shake it all about)were all fit, we would still be in the tittle race or would have won the premier league. Oh well, better luck next time; but still we have the FA Cup to fight for 🙂 !Keep the faith!COYG! 😀
@forfuckssake-‘calendar years’ mean fuck all in football terms-just ask Arsene.
Ridiculous argument,but I guess you’re one of those that thinks Wenger is the answer not the problem.
4th place trophy AGAIN,wow.
Well done all.good job.
@Rodders you plonker.
He laments dropped points. You lament not buying a striker in January, I lament the fact we started the season with Giroud as our only striker (Sanogo and Bendtner do NOT count). You go back through all the premier league years, and when has a team EVER won the league with ONE striker? I love wenger, and the work he has done, and bringing in Ozil was great and all, but the cold hard facts are, there was 3 months to bring in a striker in the summer of 2013 and he failed to do it. lament all you want,… Read more »
A season of so many “if”… it hurts we won’t be winning the league because arsene messed it up himself…it’s a shame so many arsenal fans on here buy into his usual excuses hook, line and sinker…he has already started with the world cup excuse, we fell off because of injuries (yes we did, but we overplayed key players because he didn’t have the squad depth needed to rotate? who wasn’t active in the transfer market?
Yipeeeeee to 4th place and long hail the genius who achieves it for us.
Remember Maureen did stopped us from loaning Ba when he pulled the plug at the very last minute when he realized we signed Ozil. That put a big dent on the season planning and the January window was always going to be difficult. Maureen and his despicable tactics as always.
That man is so disgustingly annoying. $$, power, talent, the perfect villain.
Guys, guys, stop complaining about the lack of the striker. Wenger has magically conjured Remy into the audience. At least this time he seems to have listened. Remy is EPL proven and is used to playing either up front or on the wings. He is exactly what we need. Throw in another defender and we will be covered 2 guys for each position. We are not short on depth, well, not chronically. I will like to see a new DM as well. Maybe Wenger assumed that Podolski or Walcott could rotate with Giroud in the striker role. Alas, both of… Read more »
“missed some big away games by conceding two many”. Top of the morning to ya Brits. Shouldn’t it be ‘too many’?
Worth pointing out that we have been unbeaten at home this season in the league apart from opening day. Surely another positive and sign of improvement.
“I would just say to be brutal in our first analysis is we missed a few goals compared to the teams who scored the most goals and we missed some big away games by conceding two many.”-AW
One for the Colemanballs, that one.
Santori – so were not unbeaten at home then. Great news we didn’t concede more than 25 goals away to the teams in the top 5. Yippee This was our great chance to win the league with city chavski and man utd having new managers. They will all be stronger again next year, I doubt we will strengthen sufficiently. 4th last year 4th this year. If we win the Fa cup great, but we all know it should of been a whole lot more Its very lucky for aw in a sense that liverpool have seemingly thrown it away. They… Read more »
Over the last 5 years Arsenal have a net spend of -4,125m while Liverpool have spent net +62,8m in transfer fees. Wage bills in 2013 Arsenal was 4th highest in the league at 144m, Liverpool one place lower at 5th at 127m.
Hardly a fraction.
Actually when you add wage bill to transfer fees, Liverpool have spent more.
Guardian had wage bills at Arsenal 154 and Liverpool 132 in 2012-13, but end result is the same.
Mpls
so if we go by your 5 years transfer fee difference, use that period as average for wages 5 x 17 we get £85m then we’re spending more
Even greater by your second set of figures
You can’t use 5 years of transfer fees and one year of wages. Make the periods of time the same
No matter how you dice it it’s still no ‘fraction’ of what we spent. And the previous four years they were nowhere near contenders for the title, so your claim of Arsenal being leagues ahead monetarily and ‘pool thriving on a pittance still fails.
If only our club weren’t so filled with its own trying to take it down every chance they get.
The guys an idiot and the biggest obstacle to us achieving real success. We have a perennial injury crisis and it come as a shock to him every year, does he have the memory of a gold fish? How can it be a surprise when we always have 4-5 players out?! It’s completely unacceptable that a team with huge resources, £120m+ cash, more than every other team in the league combined, doesn’t have every eventuality covered, because if you don’t it’s complete and utter incompetence and neglect and the blame can only lie at the feet of the person who… Read more »
so who do want instead…
Moyes, AVB, Tim Sherwood, Pardew, Allerdyce, Pulis – take yer pick mate!!!
I don’t know, I’m not a professional football administrator or director of a football club who’s job it is to know who the best possible candidates might be. Arsenal have a chief executive and a board of directors who are also paid very large sums to figure that out, again if they can’t they should also find a job they can do because that’s what their job is!!
Not knowing can not be an excuse for highly paid professionals
outside islington town hall Sunday 18 MAY
Arsene Wenger,s avin a party
bring ya coke
an bring ya charlie.
C O Y G…