Arsene Wenger claims his side switched off in the final 30 minutes as his side squandered a three goal advantage ito draw 3-3 against Belgian minnows Anderlecht.
The Gunners looked to be cruising to a third consecutive Champions League win that would have secured safe passage to the knockout stages only for a brace from Anthony Vanden Borre and Aleksandar Mitrovic’s last gasp header to cancel out goals by Mikel Arteta, Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“You have to give them [Anderlecht] credit because the fought until the end and we had a poor defensive performance from the first to the last minute today,” a frustrated Wenger told press after the game.
“We never felt comfortable and somewhere we got punished because of bad luck. The first goal was offside but defensively our performance was not good enough to do it. Secondly at 3-0 we thought the job was done and it was a combination of switching off and fatigue as well.
“You could see we couldn’t win the challenges and they finished stronger and sharper – we got punished.”
Having been lucky to pickpocket three points in Brussels, the boss put the two results in perspective, adding:
“It’s very disappointing but overall over the two games we got four points. I think we are well paid for our two performances.”
Obviously annoyed by thecapitulation he also made clear that few of his players met the standards required to see out the win, although he did reserve praise for Alexis Sanchez.
“He was one of the very few who was at his level. He was involved in the three goals. He was one of the two or three players who were at their level.
“I think when we lost Mikel Arteta we lost out because he was one of the few who defended well. That didn’t help. Apart from that maybe we underestimated subconsciously Anderlecht and got punished. In the Champions League you need to be at the mental level or you get punished and certainly we were not.”
Arteta is understood to have suffered a hamstring injury and left the field in the aftermath of Anderlecht’s first goal back. It remains to be seen how serious the injury is but it’s likely he’ll miss Sunday’s trip to Swansea.
A solitary point from Arsenal’s two remaining games against Borussia Dortmund and Galatasaray will still see them qualify, but the chances of topping the group are out of our hands now.
To be honest though, there’s not much point worrying about drawing one of Europe’s big guns in the next round when a hibernating hedgehog could have rattled in a hattrick against us this evening.
If anyone can recall a match in which we surrendered a three goal lead at home do let us know in the comment section…
He didn’t say we “deserved” to be punished. He blamed bad luck. Same as always.
“In the Champions League you need to be at the mental level or you get punished and certainly we were not.”
Sounds like ‘deserved’ to me.
my worry is for Wenger himself . the man looked ill . at one stage he was plucking his nails whilst rocking backwards and forwards with a blanket on his knee ! . for everyone’s sake I think its time for change
Funny how every time we lose he’s senile and frail, and every time we win he looks fresh-faced and rejuvenated.
Platini was at the Emirates apparently, any chance he was there to speak with Wenger about a new job?
Splotting hairs. At the end of the day, he’s refusing to admit he himself got it wrong. “Mental level”. What utter horseshit. They’re only doing what you told them Arsene.
And if they weren’t doing what you told them, what were they doing and why?
We have just conceded two goals and are under pressure and you bring on Podolski and Rosicky, not that we had a wealth of defenders on the bench but Flamini who can hold his end up and Bellerin….meagre.
Better performance next time please, that was one of the worst Arsenal moments of my life.
Up The Arsenal!
Nope, only the first goal, which i thought as well. Also, Flamini coming on changed the balance of the game. I thought that as well. Also, we didn’t buy a real fucking DM and CD. He didn’t say that though. See, I found it. The stick to beat him with. Same as bloody always!
Arsene Wenger decided that it would be a good idea to have Nacho Monreal as CB cover this term, and to keep faith with an ageing Arteta and a past-it Flamini for defensive midfield.
Capitulations of this sort lie at his door. We’ve seen it before, we’ve seen it tonight, and we’ll see it again. He needs to go.
I’m sorry but the blame rests squarely with the players. Everyone knows what kind of manager this is. He does not shout instructions. He allows the team to work things out for themselves. Are you telling me the team is so thick that they do not know they have to defend and keep things tight when going 3-0 up? “Duuuuuuh, I didn’t know we had to defend”. They’re not schoolboys. Mertesacker and Arteta are VC and Captain respectively. They are the ones who need to shout instructions on the pitch. The players are not stupid. Anyone can work out that… Read more »
So you want the players to defend, then send on Podolski?
We weren’t exactly up against Bayern or Barca. It was Ander-fuckin-lecht. Surely the defensive players could have sat back and not allowed the wingbacks to bomb forward willy nilly.
Correct. Anderlecht always looked dangerous, even at 3-0. If I could see it then so should AW. But he brought on Lukas to attack? I don’t get it.
This was a case of poor management at a vital time of the game.
Again, the players are not stupid. If you have a 3-0 lead, what is the purpose of bombing forward just for personal gain and trying to get on the score sheet? If you can see it, as you say, surely the players on the pitch can see and they have enough combined experience to realise, even when Anderlecht get a goal back, that hold on, we have got to concentrate here and not allow any more slip ups. Are 5 defensive players not enough to defend a 3-0 lead?
And he bought on Lukas for Welbeck, hardly a huge change in shape. The shape was not to blame. It is up to the players to be compact and the front line to chase down.
I wonder, Morinho would have sent on someone in the DM role, Obi Mikel, not Remy, which is what our deluded inept manager did. But then a player Milan rejected 3 yrs ago is still regarded as world class by our manager, no wonder the man has never won anycup in Europe.
He sent podolski on cause he thought he can rattle a few posts at 3-2 so that Anderlect will crow in fear and not want to attack anymore
I agree and just yesterday we were all talking about how Theo should sign the contract at 150k per week. Let’s just get things into perspective here. That’s 10 years of my daughters wages (she’s a nurse) and 6 years of my son who is a corporal in the RAF every week. Now for me to justify that I have to be able to say well the team make thousands of people happy every week. With performances like last night they won’t. Ah well, my gran always used to say ” you have to be a masochist to be a… Read more »
Respectfully disagree – I’d say luck is a huge deal here and rightfully mentioned. That first goal was an atrocious decision, one which we can certainly bemoan. The 2nd looked incredibly pathetic too, so once both these decisions go against you, it increases the possibility of giving up a lead – the underdog team galvanised by being let back into the game. As with the Newcastle game, 2 dodgy penalty decisions and a freak, out-of-the-fucking-blue goal increase the likelihood of giving up a lead. Of course, we could have played better and reduced the chances of them making successful forays… Read more »
I believe he said we probably got what we deserved based on our performances in the 2legs.. another thing i noticed.. i think Szczesny has been out of form for the past couple of games and hes cost us more than we’ve noticed… i couldnt help thing that third goal they scored was partly due to szczesny mid judging the cross and came out too soon… he should stay on his line.. he didnt need to move at all because Per was with his man (although Per himself was also at fault for letting his man get in front of… Read more »
We were never beating Dortmund 3-0 so as long as it doesn’t kill confidence and barring an Anderlecht miracle, let’s just call it a freak result chaps and move on.
It’s not a freak performance though, we’ve been playing like this all bloody season!
Sitting in 4th (not the height of our ambition I know) and getting out of the group, must have done something right this year. Cheer up the lot of ye, there’s plenty to be positive about.
Yes, plenty. Could you name those things? Let me guess: Barely making it past the group stages (provided we don’t lose spectacularly against Dortmund), and no chance of a trophy in England.
We’re a good team, but we’re desperately weak at the back, and there’s only one person to blame for that.
Look at Liverpool (not to mention United and Spurs) and try and count your blessings. It seems a lot of the fans on here will only be happy when we’re winning the league so they’re on a hiding to nothing. Try and enjoy the ride and not lose your shit every time things don’t go our way.
How a freak performance? We barely beat them in Belgium, and we couldn’t beat them tonight.
Why don’t you wake up?
WAKE UP MAN, WAKE UP. TINGS AINT GONA BE OK MAN.
It’s football and we’re pretty good at it generally, relax.
They DO deserve to be punished. They are very naughty boys. Go stand in the corner with a dunce’s hat on, all of ye. ( apart from Sanchez who gets a lollipop)
Finding it hard to be angry. We’ll qualify anyway and one thing you can say about Arsenal is its always fucking entertaining. When Anderlecht score a goal thats oh, TEN FEET OFF SIDE then you know something bonkers is gonna happen in the rest of the game. And we’re Arsenal, we love the drama. Wenger is part genius/ part lunatic. ” Lets not buy any defenders and see what happens”. What a guy. Completely mad. Gotta love him.
Must be the reason why we are so bad at corners 😉
Haha…
Sigh… We are shit…
Wenger that’s what you get for playing a LB at CB – still no excuse to throw away a 3 goal lead against mediocre opposition at home.
We know what you’re saying.
But this is not the work of a genius. If you go into a season – of 60 odd matches maybe more – with only 6 … SIX !!!! acknowledged senior defenders, this is what can/does happen.
But for Wenger it’s incredible. A perplexing mystery. For the rest of us – it’s just what you’d expect.
Chelsea have FIVE senior defenders and they are doing alright.
We’re simply unlucky with injuries as always. That said it was a terrible decision not to get another CB in and we’re paying for it
Defenders
John Terry > Gary Cahill > Branislav Ivanovic > Cesar Azpilicueta > Filipe Luis > Kurt Zouma > Nathan Ake > Andreas Christensen >
We could list belerin and Hayden, nice try.
What would you have gone through to type in those obnoxious names I don’t know. But I, for sure do not want to be seeing them. At least not here.
Sorry Craig I don’t agree that ‘We’re simply unlucky with injuries as always.’
The occurrence of injuries is far too frequent to be realistically put down to bad luck or coincidence. There must be some serious shortcomings happening behind the scenes which have been contributing to our horrendous injury situation. Something we desperately need to identify then put actions in place to address.
Bullseye ! Sir/Madam.
What you see on the pitch is a reflection of what goes on on the training ground. The lack of application is obvious for all to see. People like Chamberlain and Walcott coming out and saying they have to tell Sanchez to calm down in training. Maybe they should see his drive as an example and look to emulate it. They most likely don’t do the bare basics they are meant to do to ensure muscle injuries and other such injuries do not occur like warm ups and warm downs. They only probably train their second rate impression of Barcelona… Read more »
Getting sick of hearing we are “unlucky” with injuries. Hear or read this every year, all year… surely there’s only so much we can blame this on lady luck? And given this is a known issue for us, surely that’s an extra reason for Wenger to add another CB to squad?
Chelsea doesn’t have our injury record though…
We’re simply unlucky with injuries as always
All teams suffer injuries, if a manager keeps buying lightweight brittle players whose fault is that? Do they not do due diligence and look into players injury history before buying them?
Well Rob, I did say part genius/ part lunatic 🙂 Sometimes Le Boss pulls magic rabbits out of his magic hat but other days he puts his hat on the wrong way, his trousers on inside out and walks backwards over the edge of a cliff. Its never dull. I know I should be ‘angry’ but you know what? Give me the Arsenal rollercoaster over the Chelsea procession any day. Yeah we’ll likely win fuck all and they’ll likely walk the league but still, who’ll ever give a fuck about Chelsea? They’re all falling asleep at Stamford Bridge with boredom.… Read more »
Sorry don’t agree ! The sight of Chelski lifting the EPL or the CL infuriates me. Because it could be us. And it would be us if we had a better Manager, who understood tactics, understands substations and was capable of organising and motivating these players. Wenger no longer is and he hasn’t been for years. It’s a fact and people can thumb this post down until the cows come home but we won’t win anything other than a once a decade domestic Cup whilst Wenger stays. But hey Arsnene makes tonnes of money for Stan and he – Stan… Read more »
I am furious that every though I agree with Wenger I don’t want to hear any f**king words out of his mouth….
If I remember correctly we surrendered a three goal lead against Anderlecht tonight.
But you won’t be punished. There’s no accountability anywhere in the entire organization.
I think I made the case several times a few years back, but stopped because, well, I was just saying the same thing over and over…. but Kroenke’s teams don’t win shit. He’s owned the Avs and the Nuggets since 2000, the Rapids since 2004, the Rams since 2010, Arsenal since 2008 (I think that’s when he became majority shareholder). So that’s 48 team seasons. In that time he’s won one Stanley Cup, one MLS Cup and one FA Cup. And he can’t really take credit for the Stanley Cup because that entire team was in place and they won… Read more »
We’ve got TWO billionaire sugar daddies TWO and an economist for a manager who hands out money like a 1950s bank manager. Poles apart at the top level.
We need a central defender. We need a defensive midfielder. We’ve needed them for a long time.
This is getting boring.
He sorted he’s zipper out so he’ll get to the squad and new signings soon enough. Heh.
Fatigue??? …Really? aren’t you supposed to rotate players??? You let quality player rot on the bench and bring them on so late that they have no chance… Mircale doesn’t happen often.
That quality wasn’t so quality tonight.
So basically apart from Arteta our defense sucked donkey balls, Sanchez is the only good player, and we were naive to go for more goals to improve our goal difference. Fair enough. I hope the manager was angry in the dressing room. You just don’t give away a 3-0 lead at home against Anderlecht.
Credit to the OX as well, him and Alexis really influenced the 3 goals. It’s crazy that we only have 2 senior centre backs available and the rest are fullbacks, you’d think wenger would be able to get at least one centre back with the money we got for vermalaen… Or at least we could have kept Miquel who did quite well on loan at Leicester last season.
Miquel just wasn’t good enough, Benvnc. I like him too, but he would not have done even as well as Monreal at CB. Every time I see Gary Cahill I remember when we could have picked him up, but that’s water over the dam. January is a long way away and I hope Isaac Hayden heals quickly.
Arteta is old and shit.
And Flaminni too!
Even more frustrating is that it goes on head to head if we did finish top with Dortmund. Only way GD would be relevant is if we beat Dortmund by exactly 2 goals.
Oooooooo….’deserved to be punished’……..he sounds like Charlie Hawtrey !!!
Ooooo….Errrr..Mrsssses………
Really? That’s where you go with that?
Arsenal should be a f**king team that never gives away 3-nil lead regardless of who the f**ck opposition is let alone Anderlecht. If a team can’t hold 3 nil lead for f**cking 25 mins….what can I say.. just f***k
To give up a 3-0 lead at HOME to a Belgium side? There’s something wrong with our set-up, with our attitude, with our belief, and that’s down to Wenger. He’s done. I can’t stand him any longer.
Apologies for the Scrabble pun, but you seem to need ‘U’s as badly as Arsenal need a ‘DM’ and a’CB’.
Wenger out!!!
I totally agree, and I would never have agreed three years ago. This man is poison to our club.
Wenger: “And I deserve to be punished for not bringing on subs at 3-0 to slow the game down and kill the game off. Instead I lacked common sense and fucked my team in the arse. “
And the internet speaks and shoots itself straight up the arse.
What would you do at 60 to stop a goal 2 yards offside from the bench??
I can understand what you’re getting at but who do you replace?? Ramsey for flamini? Well, Arteta’s about to limp off? Santi? Replace with who? Wellbeck??
Think first mate.
No subs are going to over come the brittle nature of lack of confidence within our current squad. Belief in holding onto a win comes from sticking the same team together.
Podolski, Sanogo, Rosicky and Walcott are not the players who are going to going to slow down and kill off a game.
Telling your fb’s to not charge forward and your midfield to sit might help
Very much agreed. With Alexis Ox and Welbeck there was more than enough counter-attacking ability if needed.
Really telling that he thinks it was partially down to fatigue, and goes back to how we never rotate the squad. If the players can’t play a full 90 min then he has to either a) take them off before they reach that point or b) not play them at all. If he hasn’t realized in his 20 years of coaching that players get tired when they’re playing 90 min twice a week (and even the players who get subbed have to play 80+ min) then he’s never going to come close to winning the champions league.
We “deserve” to be free of you…
#Wenger_Go
[Note: Not “Out” as in sack… Buh he should just like “Go”. Respectufully resign]
Players change, squads change. The one constant is this type of result. Manager sets the culture. And the culture tolerates this kind of horse shit
Yeah…” bad luck”
“bad luck” you fielded an ok-ish LB in CB?
“bad luck” our only cover for an aging Arteta is Flamini?
“Bad Luck” that you brought on the wrong subs? We need people to press and defend and you bring on Podolski?
All just bad luck.
Wenger team this season is below standard and it’s not going to get any better if he refuses to solve the defence problem.The defence is the foundation of any good team.Does anyone really think we’ll win something with this team? Tactically Le Prof is loosing it. He has not learnt the act of mixing experience with the young lads.So he’ll will continue to have fatigue
Ramsey ignored his role tonight, he needs discipline, his job was to sit in front of the back four. I think he is jealous of the plaudits that Alexis is getting
Brilliant comment & completely agree. Thought Ramsey was terrible all night. I understand he is probably desperate to get a goal & his name back on the scoresheet…but tonight WASN’T the night to go for that! Especially when Artetta came off, Flamini came on & it was clear for all to see that they started to get back in the game. I also blame the manager for not at that stage standing on the touchline rollocking Ramsey everytime he dashed forward. Ramseys job was to help protect the back four…he didn’t need to do anything else as we had enough… Read more »
To me your point about Wenger not actively addressing Ramsey’s abandonment of responsibility is fair. And I agree with both – and was asking all match – Why the FUCK was Ramsey in a more advanced position than Alexis and Welbeck so often? That was exactly what Wenger said he should Not be focusing on. But neither of them did anything to adjust it.
Last season Ramsey’s tackle and interception rate was just as impressive as his goalscoring. That’s the Ramsey I’d like to see. If Arteta hadn’t pulled up I’d have put Flamini on for him.
I didn’t like him taking the ball away from Sanchez for that free kick in the 2nd half.
@ Styles,
Best post in the comments section.
I thought it was just me who noticed that.
All of a sudden he doesn’t seem to be happy that he’s not saving the day
It’s a sad state of affairs at the Arsenal. Having grown up around the invincibles team, I have a great deal of respect and love for him. I’m no ‘Wenger out’ guy but I don’t know anymore. All too familiar result. somethings gotta change, i just don’t know if i can bring myself to say it….
You know we get alot of criticism from pundits. journos and even managers..’They should have bought him’, ‘Arsenal need a CB and a Dcm’ Wenger is negligent etcc… Even when cunts like Mourinho for example say Wenger is a ‘specialist in failure’ we all stood up and supported Wenger. argued for him, defended him and admonished anything a CUNT like Mourinho had to say. But results and capitulations like today are exactly that. Sometimes i watch Arsenal and we are actually inventive in our methods on how to fuck up..We specialize in failing spectacularly sometimes..How many games like this have… Read more »
Almost gave you my thumb if not for the specialist in failure bit
But Wenger is a specialist in failure.
Players like mertasacker are a big joke in this team. Really feeling terrible.. I would like to see chambers playing in CB and bring in bellarin.
Exactly!
Even Mertasacker was a panic buy after the 8-2 debacle at OT, i remember the idiotic man was saying he has the quality in his squad, and then that game at OT came early, 3rd match or so in the season, he then rushed to buy BFG/Arteta/the South Korean guy…….
I’m trying to keep in perspective with Mert that he’s paired with a makeshift CB, a 19 YO backup right back, and no real DM in front of him and a box-to-box Mid who is making runs in behind the opposition CB’s.
The stars aligned for Anderlecht on that header. Nothing more. But Poldi could have closed down the ball in better. Surprise.
at 3 0 i can bet that no1 was thinking lets be more defensive, but now after what happened everyone is saying how we should have brought on defensive players and all that. the players thought the match was over, they lost their intensity and when they wanted to push on again it was basically too late. Should happen in professional sport but unfortunately it does once in a while, we will still qualify though so hopefully the team can regroup for the big match at swansea
I was saying the aspect of team defense wasn’t working when we were 2-0 up. Anderlecht counter attacks were only being repulsed when they were already a yard from goal.
Right, Richie. Anderlecht’s game plan was good; they almost got the lead in the first half. They didn’t have to change things up much, just wait until the Gunners slacked off a bit and they got some luck. (The equaliser was excellent, though.) At the half, the tactics should have changed. At 3-0, they HAD to change. But Wenger isn’t doing that this season, it seems. The personnel aren’t conducive to making lead-protecting substitutions, but he could adjust the shape.
Ok, so you are all saying that when we lost arteta whole tactical shape was lost and clueless, which fault is that ? yes we lost arteta and as a manager you are seeing that arteta is disciplined and is sitting back and protecting the back 4, so what do you do, the only dm player is flamini of course you sub him for arteta but there is where the problem lays, how can you put flamini on with no instruction and just hope that we will see the game out, wee fans all saw it the danger immediately after… Read more »
I’ve not seen us lose a 3-0 lead at home in 41 years of attending home games.
Chambers was getting roasted all 2nd half and Wenger did fuck all about it. He just isn’t proactive during a game. Their manager saw a weakness and changed tactics. That’s what good managers do.
It’s just such a waste of time…..Wenger out.
Agreed.
Why The Ox and Welbeck were subbed off is beyond me?! Along with Alexis those 3 players had our highest work rate in terms of pressing and getting stuck in. Not to mention Ox and Welbeck gave us the pace up front to execute counter attacks. Once anderlecht started pouring forward we simply could not counter because we were feeding a useless Cazorla on the wings.. Wenger is just tactically inept. Plain and simple. Chambers was taken to the cleaners in the 2nd half, he is a decent right back but is very exposed when playing against tricky wingers. Same… Read more »
why such late subs? surely walcott would have been better than Rosicky…was it too risky?
I can’t believe you ask such questions. If you know Wenger you know he’s useless at subs and useless at tactical changes. He can’t even get it right against a Belgium side at home and boasting a 3-0 lead.
Yikes, shades of Newcastle capitulation, and we didn’t lose Djourou or Diaby. Maybe Joey Barton is right, we have a soft belly. I’m not sure how we can be so suddenly abject sans Arteta. after all, many said he was past it anyway. Flamini will of course be the lightning rod but the issue isn’t as facile as requiring a mhtical physically imposing DM. Again, two goals leaked from crosses out wide. This has been a persistent problem since pre-season. Clearly our organization seems to be a bit caught out . Leaking one goal, you would think we would keep… Read more »
Joey Barton is never right.
Amen.
We were 3 goals up so I don’t expect that anyone at that point wanted us to go into a shell and protect a lead. However having leaked a goal, I would expect us to have a bit more caution in what we were doing. Wenger is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, he gets criticised for not using the length and breath of his squad enough. Rotation is important. OTOH, when he does do it, it backfires on him. This game prove just how fragile our improvement has been. Away from the false… Read more »
Mr Wenger time for a change, you are repeatedly making two crucial errors: weak defense (building a team without foundations) not remembering the basic art of closing out a game.
WHERES DIABY TO SAVE THE DAY? God this coach (and team) is infuriating…
They hadn’t won an away CL game in like 17 years by the way
I mean they still haven’t won – it probably just feels like winning – in the same way that Arsenal technically didn’t lose, just it feels a lot like losing when a lead like that slips away.
‘Combination of switching off & fatigue’
If wenger switch on his brain & rotate more this would not happen.we all are human that need a little bit of rest eventhough we claim ourselve superhuman..
Ramsey’s role is not to sit in front of the back four when Wenger plays a 4-1-4-1.
Take us back to a 4-2-3-1 with Arteta and Flamini at the base. At least it gives us stability and with our attacking talent we’ll always score.
It’s every midfielder’s role to defend more when you’re sitting on that kind of lead. You don’t look at numbers on a page and say ‘see, not my problem’. He’s got to sit back more in that situation and boss the middle of the field. He has the skills.
Absolutely shocking. What manager in their right mind brings on Podolski to DEFEND a lead! I couldn’t believe it. Bring Bellerin on, shift Chambers to CB and let Monreal play on the LW to support Gibbs on that side. We were doing this quite effectively in the past when we wanted to close shop and see out the game. Ox and Welbz could’ve stayed on with Cazorla coming off. What a disaster.
You are losing the grip, Mr Wenger. And your excuses are becoming unbearable. Players suffering fatique!? The travelling team is suppose to offer that excuse. Besides you did not rotate players!
What a way to ruin my day, only we know how, the Arsenal way.
if im not in the right mental frame to work on tuesdays or wednesdays, i get sacked from my job…simple as that, no?
Mr Wenger, you
Oh yes we did, Arsene, and not just the players. This is the result of a lack of defensive discipline, cover and overall quality. And the manager must hold his hand up as much as the players. Results-wise this is not the worst thanks in large part to the smash-and-grab at their place, but how many times must we give away leads that Alexis has given us?? I still have nightmares over a certain 4-4 and, yes, that was away, but this latest scoreline is just adding to the paranoia and disappointment. Fear over how opponents will be convinced that… Read more »
Shit sloppy defensive play has been the order of the day at Arsenal since Martin Keown retired. I for one fucking hate it, it feels unprofessional ans d disrectful to the opposition, the game and most of all the Arsenal fans. These recurring capitulations will be as much Wenger’s legacy as the great goals and trophies. I’ve pretty much given up caring now and am in hibernation until we have a new manager. Familiarity breeds contempt and I have seen enough
Wenger out! Any person with his head in the right places knows that his time is up. I have backed Wenger unconditionally for many years but his refusal to deal with the glaring deficiencies on the team for many seasons can no longer be tolerated. Blame the defensive performance if you like but the buck stops with the manager. He picked the team. Why is Nacho Montreal, a below average LB at best, starting at CB for team in CL. Ridiculous! Why substitute the OX and Welbeck who along with Sanchez were causing their defense all sorts of problems? Instead… Read more »
Merse was absolutely spot on in his post match summary, ‘a totally clueless display, shocking!’
Oh yes we did, Arsene, and not just the players. This is the result of a lack of defensive discipline, cover and overall quality. And the manager must hold his hand up as much as the players. Results-wise this is not the worst thanks in large part to the smash-and-grab at their place, but how many times must we give away leads that Alexis has given us?? I still have nightmares over a certain 4-4 and, yes, that was away, but this latest scoreline will just add to the general paranoia and disappointment. Paranoia over how opponents will be convinced… Read more »
I bet we can say we felt like this last season, and the one before, and the one before the last, and so on.
It’s the Arsenal Way
It’s the Wenger way. Terrible mentality. Remember being up 4-0 against Newcastle?
My criticism against Arsene is merely meant for him to buck up as a manager, the same way any player is criticised for poor play. Perhaps Steve Bould also has a part in the recent performance of the defence.
To yell “Wenger out” is ridiculous. We still need him and indeed he needs to buck up. Arsene is by far the best manager in the EPL if not the best in Europe.
The best manager in the Epl and Europe?
Wake up matey, he hasn’t been that for years.
Would the best manager in Europe sit on his chair, under a granny blanket, picking his nails while his team disintegrates before his eyes, or would he be out in the technical area, directing, barking instructions, doing whatever it takes to get his strategic message across?
You really have to give credit to Anderlecht. Their oldest player is 21. They battled and deserved a point over two games. I felt our players were holding back but theirs was a 100% effort especially in the last half hour. when it counts.
some of our guys are not professional enough. when the score was 2-3, I was thinking which of our mentally fragile players would snap. I was fearing sczezney having another one of his moments. (although he was tidy yesterday). but the third from them was a beauty.
Vanden borre is 27
We all knew after transfer deadline we were short on 1st team defensive players, never mind squad depth to compete on all fronts. We barely have a squad that can compete in the premier league for an entire season. So what if we had Özil already. What manager would have passed on getting Fabregas handed to him on a plate. He would certainly be playing every game now. Tactically Wenger seeds to be making more and more mistakes as well. What’s worrying is that there seems no real intent to change anything from the board. In fact it looks like… Read more »
Trying to be pretty n entertainment doesn’t work for us anymore. .well not with the dm n defense that we got, we need a fresh approach. Simple plans like try not to concede a goal n score when we have a chance it’s a better solution. Enough playing Russian roulette under wenger, someone like Diego Simeone will do the job.
Only the players are to blame for that shit
Really? Did the players decide we didn’t need a CB and DM this summer? Get your head checked.
This lies at Wenger’s feet.
The same players were 3-0 up, and good enough to get that lead. They were also bad enough to lose it. All this ‘Wenger out’ shit everytime things dont go our way is just stupid. So fickle.
When all the players are all trying to play like Sanchez then we have a problem. It’s fine for players like Ox or Caz but when we are trying to close out the game, everyone trying to dribble their way out and doing hollywood 10 yard passes aren’t the smartest thing. Needed an intelligent leader on the field to calm things down. Ozil would have been perfect. Although the benefit of this young squad is the energy. Still plenty of experienced player to calm things down. A shame and I hope we will find the backup desperately needed to finally… Read more »