Arsene Wenger says Arsenal lacked sharpness and made many technical mistakes during their 1-0 win over Burnley.
The Gunners snatched victory in dramatic circumstances deep into injury time as Laurent Koscielny bundled home a corner, seemingly with the aid of his hand.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the boss admitted his side may have been lucky to take the three points back to the Emirates.
“It was a difficult game. I felt we had the merit not to concede, to be patient and to keep going against a team that is very well organised. They [Burnley] played very well today with full spirit.
“Overall, we lacked a little bit of sharpness and our legs were a bit heavy today. That was a game we could have won 1-0 and lost 1-0 as well on set pieces.
“I haven’t seen the replay [of the goal] and honestly from the bench I didn’t even see the ball going in. Maybe we were a bit lucky there, if you tell me [the ball hit Koscielny’s hand] maybe we were lucky there, yes.
“I think you’re always disappointed when you put that effort in [like Burnley did] and lose the game. The positives they can take out of the game is that they made everybody suffer here. If you want to stay in the league you have to be efficient at home and win two or three games away from home.
“We made many technical mistakes today in the first half, we really wanted to win today, we knew it could be a big week for us. Maybe we played a little with the handbrake, not enough freedom, not enough combinations, not enough pace to go in behind. Is it down to us being below our level or because they defended well? Certainly a bit of both.”
The win takes Arsenal up to third in the Premier League table, just two points behind leaders Manchester City who earlier lost for the first time this season against Sp*rs. Unsurprisingly, the boss was pleased to close the gap.
“We had a big blow in the first game [losing to Liverpool] and when you’re five points behind teams of [Manchester City’s] quality, it’s big. When you have an opportunity to get a bit closer you have not to miss it.”
U say we were so damb lucky! And about time we got lucky too! I love us getting lucky once in a while.
Havent we been lucky for more than a couple of times this season already? Referees are doing all they can for us to be honest. As far as this is not Italy lets call that luck 😉
It IS about smegging time we got lucky. We’ve been shafted badly by poor decisions in the past. Mike Dean, anyone? Every time we’ve been punished by a wrong decision, someone (rightly) said they’ll even out in the long run. Well, the run may have been longer than we wanted, but yes – they’re finally evening out.
*damn*
Us getting lucky this season lads. Penalties, Ref favouring us and wins like this, get the fek in!!!!!!!
Whisper it quietely but champions traits?
Coq injury 3 weeks instead of months
Not even three weeks lad. He’s back in full training and there were pictures of him with the rest of the squad on the official website. Long may this good fortune continue!
We needed the luck today. Three points, will take them. Thank you very much!
I m just here to upvote every single comment.
Keep up the good work son, spread that good feeling. I always enjoy a wee thumbs up, a bit of love from a group of strangers makes commenting worthwhile. Couldn’t do it without your support.
A little off topic but that Diego Costa seems a lovely fellow doesn’t he?
Me too
In seasons past, I could imagine us losing this game-play well for a patch, then balls it up in Arsenal fashion, we’ve all been there. That we didn’t (albeit with a lot of luck) maybe speaks to a change. Perhaps I’m being too optimistic, but I hope not.
Take the luck today, but don’t forget it when it goes against us later this season.
The passing lacked a little bit sharpness today. But great teams win these types of games. Maybe the whole of the season will show Arsenal are a great time. Only time will tell..
It was a completely unintentional hand from Kos so i think it was a correct decision. Should have been offside if Ox touched the ball to Kos but i am not sure he touched it at all altough he seem to think he did.
Basically, “I did not see the incident.” Happy anniversary (again), Boss.
Honestly, I love an away winner. And even better when it pisses everyone off. Go on, boys.
So many Wengerisms rolled out for the 20th anniversary.
‘I did not see it’
‘Played with heavy legs’
‘Lacked a little bit of sharpness’
‘Full of spirit’
‘Handbrake on’
Only missing LANS
Wait till Wellbeck comes back for that.
At this rate, even Giroud qualifies as LANS lol.
i can’t be the only one thinking of Henry Lansbury first time i saw this LANS abbreviation, he wouldn’t qualify as LANS though would he?
Can someone kindly enlighten me as to what the abbrieve …..LANS means?……already tried google search engine and it only yields bunch of data totally unrelated to football?
Like A New Signing
A reason for the somewhat dour performance today may have been that the majority of the team player 3 matches in 8 days. It had to take an effect at some point and I guess the break has come at the right point.
Really could have used Giroud today for knockdowns and headers.
Hugely lucky, which I don’t mind at all, but a game like that shows why having a plan B like Giroud is essential. If we can working on our crossing, we might have a squad that’s unplayable on any day.
*work on our crossing, sorry
I feel like the reason the crossing seemed bad today was because there were so few options to cross to. There were so many times when we chose to pass back instead. Giroud would have helped to encourage more crosses and act as a target man
Aki ya mama nimejikojolea yangu yote. That goal went in and I spoke in more languages than my Macedonian friend. It was like the day of pentacost all over again. Arsenal wanajua kunitesa kabisa. Well worth the 90 Mins of anxiety..
@Beowulf: You found that anxiety inducing. Really?
Say what?!! Post in English man for goodness sake.
Had a fiver on kos 1st goal at 20s. Defo come off his chest…
Quids in!
In fairness we didn’t get a clear penalty towards the end. Clear handball, ignored by the ref.
Exactly if that’s not handball then how can the one on kos be from a fraction of the distance
Yep we were, but we showed grit and determination.
I was worried when I saw they were starting with a 4-5-1. Giroud was a HUGE miss today and it shows there are going to be games like these where we’ll need him.
3 points is all that matters.
Does anybody know why Lucas wasn’t on the bench even.
Lucas has a slight knee injury, and Arsene said after the match that Mesut was a doubtful starter, so that would explain why he wasn’t at his best.
A “little” knee injury
Awesome to see the anti-football swallow it in the very last second; wow they’re even worse than Pulis teams
We lacked a little bit sharpness, played with the handbrake on, Le Prof didn’t see the controversial moment of the game but we’ve come away with three points.
I could listen to Wengerisms all season at this rate.
Thierry Henry said the goal should be disallowed for handball. ..well..look who,s talking.
Hahaha this is gold
coming from him?…priceless!…hahahaha!
I can only possibly equate this to Maradona questioning the goal?
very glad for the win.Long may it continue until we get our hands on the trophy come end of the season.The defensive partnership of Kosaffi is realy good!
Really lucky we were but thank God we didn’t drag behind more so when the Man city gap is being closed by tottenum, we need to be next to our rivals
That fucking handbrake never seems to break. Good 3 points regardless.
They say you make your own luck. We did that by keeping on playing for the three points. Well done lads it was a tough one.
Only Liverpool (28) have scored more 90th-minute winning goals in the Premier League than Arsenal (23).
Source: BBC
We needed some fresh legs today, unfortunately Ox was out of form and Giroud&Lucas not in the squad so Wenger had few alternatives to put in the first 11. All in all a good battle from the guys and yeah very lucky as Ox’s shot would have gone way over the goal. Nothing away from Burnley’s solid defensive display. Now let’s get Ramsey and Giroud back and continue the from from earlier this week. City doesn’t look unbeatable now.
Im always going to thumb you down because of your name….ALWAYS!!
Burnley can fookin defend, eh? Good performance.
Still excellent we cunted them right in their cunts.
Indeed we did!
All you people that are saying we were lucky ffs are you all arsenal fans or what or just listening to sky that like all the controversy the team won that it every other fans just take the win and help their team but not arsenal fans.The team loss they moan they win they fine some kind of fault,so you all get over it the team won if you score in the first minute or the last the game is play for 90 minutes and added time and the team won within that time.So Burnley fan going to tell me… Read more »
And breath………….
Have seen pictures and replays and my conclusion is that Ox never touched the ball so i think we can put the offside-discussion to bed. The handball is a different matter but we all know that it was completely unintentional. He tried to score, no way he wanted the ball to go in with the help of his arm. And earlier in the game the ref decided that unintentional handballs is ok when he refused give us a penalty when the ball hit the arm on a Burnley defender in their penalty area.
We lacked a little bit (the) sharpness LOL!!
NOthing to do with luck.
Never in doubt.:D
I am so pleased we do not need to go there when the weather is topsy turvy. if Burnley play like this I can see a lot of teams struggle to win there.
and I like how wenger gave them the formula for survival this season. make your home a fortress and win 2 or 3 away.