Arsene Wenger admits losing two games on the trot – both from winning positions – has made for a ‘horrible week’ for Arsenal.
Tuesday’s defeat against Everton, coupled with results elsewhere, meant the Gunners had little room to drop further points when they visited Manchester City.
A fast start saw them take the lead courtesy of Theo Walcott’s 11th goal of the season, however, it proved to be the high point of a wretched afternoon that ended in defeat when Pep Guardiola’s men hit back with goals from Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling.
Having watched his side fail to keep a clean sheet for the 12th game in a row, Wenger put the onus on his side to improve their defending.
“We have to come back next week and win our game,” he told his post-match press conference.
“I think we’ve had an absolutely horrible week and what is worse is that out of two good performances, you get zero points. And out of two leading positions, we lost two games.
“That of course, is very disappointing. Before we think about the nine points, we have to come back and be realistic. For a while we have not kept a clean sheet, and if you want to play at the top you have to keep clean sheets.”
The boss also touched on how the fixture pile-up has taken its toll on his players, particularly in light of their recent run of away games.
“We’ve played many games. We’ve played four games away from home out of the last five. We had one day less recovery at Everton than everybody else.
“We played in Basel, we played against Stoke on Saturday, then we played at Everton on Tuesday night. I feel there are plenty of big teams who don’t play in Europe who could have played on Tuesday, and we could have played on Wednesday.
“I think it’s a bit the accumulation of games we’ve played recently, particularly away from home.”
My response would be not to renew your contract. You’ve been an amazing servant to this club, but it is time to go.
our next seven games are very “winnable” including an FA cup break with preston … the eighth game will be chelsea.
come one, lets get back on track!
Listen, as much as I love the enthusiasm, and no, its not impossible to mount another title challenge considering our next games are: West Brom, Palace, Bournemouth, Swansea, Burnely and Watford – however, I just dont think we have the stones for it. We don’t believe we can win the title, and I think thats our biggest problem. The quality is there no doubt, we have such a talented squad, we really do. I just think it boils down to whether we really want to win it. I remember listening to Henry in the pre match build up before the… Read more »
Lots of excuses. But no explanation as to why he makes no changes when it’s obvious we are being overrun. No changes. Until it’s too late. Isn’t he the one that said we need to be brave? Where is his bravery when it comes to substitutions?
Agreed. Especially as some of our players are looking very tired.
Two good performances? He must have been watching different games. Maybe that’s our problem!
Time to start rotatin’ then. Slap Mesut out of his coma also
Sell Özil! Then the fans will be happy, this happiness will last one game and they will then realise the problem was elsewhere.
As a fan you expect to lose games, it’s part of the contract we signed up for, I am ok with this when you try and give it your best effort. Sometimes it just doesn’t click or the other team are going better on the day. I am trying hard to remember when I have seen such a defeat in the past few seasons. When was the last time we lost a game and you came away feeling that we had played really well and could consider ourselves unlucky to come away with nothing? It seems every time we lose… Read more »
Spot on. I don’t mind losing when the players and manager leave it all on the field but when was the last time that this team left it all on the field.
The problem is that when Arsenal are on their day, it’s easy to sound like a magnanimous prick by saying yes “they gave it their all.”
That’s partly what’s most frustrating. “Arsenal on their day could win the league”
Coulda, shoulda, woulda, blah blah blah blah. It’s our expectation that we shouldn’t lose to anyone that drives us so mad. Fanatics, all of us, we proudly say.
Response what for? Top 4 battle?
I’m telling you guys no matter how much better we look than the previous seasons we will still somehow choke on something every season. I am not being a sad emo prick here.. well maybe I am but this is what we have been doing the the past X years. It really pisses me off when fans starts to delude themselves thinking we have gotta chance in the Premier League or Champions League.
There’s nothing wrong with fans trying to be positive. What should piss us all off, is how those hopes are so consistently dashed year after year, by a team who are each paid millions to perform, yet so regularly let the fans down by not turning up in important games.
To say that ‘out of two good performances, we get zero points’ is a rather grotesque reflection on the truth, Arsene.
He also said in one of his press conference today:
a) Both Goals were offside (Not 100% correct)
b) We lacked physically a ltl bit (Wenger’s mistake to not to have sub earlier)
c) Mental strength is ok (BIG LIE)
How can you say Mental strength is ok when despite of having 15 mins to get an equaliser, you cant even reach nearer to the opponents goal post? This is disgraceful i am afraid. Wenger has to go.
Re (a), the professional referee I watched the game with in the pub said both goals were offside.
That’s why you have a squad man.
Rotate ffs.
Saw the lineup against Everton and knew that we would fade in the 2nd half.
Arsene just hasn’t used his squad well at all.
This. Not sure why people aren’t pointing this out but from Basel both of Gibbs and Lucas had blinders. In my view would’ve been better to keep them on for Everton. Give Alexis and Monreal breathers. Elneny could’ve come in for Coq, and Ramsey for Ozil reverting back to a midfield 3. Alexis and Ozil clearly looked knackered and rightly so. It’s not like we don’t have the personnel to rotate.
Good point, though I suspect trying to get Alexis to take a breather is easier said than done.
I only wish our performances were as good as his excuses.
Seriously, Arsene, two good performances and complaining about a day’s less rest against bloody Everton?
We looked crap today, against a significantly undermanned City, and managers with 1/10 of your “prestige” ROTATE their players for a reason.
If you can’t see that your selection and your lack of tactical nous are the problem then be gone with you.
“Two good performances” wowsers! The other day it was got to stop being timid… maybe they heard wrong and thought he meant got to start being more timid.
City’s first half was not working out. So they made a change at half time to remedy that and it worked. They won the game. When have we ever made such a change that would drastically improve our game from a goal behind? Not many, if any at all, instances come to mind.
Sane and Sterling also switched sides. And it worked as both scored. As much as we are complaining about the team performance, we have to give credit where it is due. Pep Guardiola is a much better tactician than Arsène Wenger.
Same story year after year after year. Nothing will change as long as Wenger is there and blames everyone but himself and the bottlers he’s bought and bred. Been there 10 years too long
Arsenal can’t defend..period!!
I’m sick of the word “disappointed”. They shouldn’t be disappointed. They should be angry!
Let’s be sensible – we lost to a good side. Going from a winning position is fuckin shit, and I was raging, but we can lose a big game through the season so long as we make sure we get points from all the others.
Having said that, the games we lost are extra bad as £iteh and Everton both lost to Chelski, plus £iteh are a direct rival.
Lack of rotation is a huge problem. I think we missed Ramseys energy in midfield, also, it looked to slow to me. This was a game for Santi. Tight spaces when we won the ball!
Arsenal have taken the lead and have failed to win in far too many games.. This has happened at more than any other top club and this is totally unacceptable.
I have been thinking for along time regardless of whether the fm win the epl or cl, he
shd finally say sayonara. 20 years at a top club is too long. If you are winning the epl every year or every two years ,the manager is entitled to when he shd go.
In Wenger’s case it doesn’t apply.
Then why the fuck don’t we rotate the biggest, most mature squad we’ve had in years?
Just keep off the deflection.
This. Why play pretty much the same team in 3 times in 8 days. We have good rotation options in Giroud, Lucas, Elneny, Gibbs and Holding.
This week’s results were very frustrating. It’s easy to second guess Wenger or any manager. From my point of view, a few of the players are not putting in the necessary performances. We are seeing how valuable Mustafi is, our team is never the same with Gabriel on the pitch. Ozil didn’t show today, and Alexis was average. Those two have to be able to grab the team by the scruff of the neck and carry the rest of them. Unfortunately, today they did not demonstrate that they’re capable of doing that. This group aside from Kocielny, Mustafi, and Cech… Read more »
This will probably fall on deaf ears but here it is anyway. One bad week doesn’t make a season. One week ago we had just beaten West Ham, Basel and stoke scoring 12 goals in the process, top of the league albeit for a day, and top of our champions league group. Everyone was pretty happy I’d say, no mention of Wenger out, and no slagging off of any players. One week later and the seasons over? Really? Don’t get me wrong, we were fucking shit in that second half today, and I’m fucking angry at that pathetic performance which… Read more »
It’s because this isn’t a one season thing. This shit has happened time and again. Groundhog day.
I don’t feel the fight or commitment of many of the players on the pitch. What Wenger needs to do is invest ina high end 3d printer and copy a team of Alexis. Bellerin is OK, the Cbacks tried to do the job. But protection from midfield was entirely missing. Ozil reverted to poor nonchalant form as soon as things stacked against us. Can’t help but feel we could have done with retaining Jack. He would have given a toss and at very least tried to hold the ball better in midfield for us. We couldn’t string 2 passes together… Read more »
I say sell the German. He goes missing in the big games. The gunner ballerinas need time and space to play their bewitching game. Problems arise and have arisen when they are denied time and space and are physically confronted. That’s why they lost to Everton and now MC. As for their mental strength ,I say its all bs.They can t even beat Boro a lowly team. The epl is not only a skills based game. Physicality counts as well. In this respect Wenger has failed repeatedly to shore up his side with monsters. Once the season ends ,Arsenal shd… Read more »
Save it. Two abject performances which we rightly lost.
Sorry, but we’re no chance this season if we don’t shake it up. None.
For fck sake we’re Arsenal!!! What good performances is Arsene talking about? We score a goal against a big team in a big match and then all of a sudden we turn into a Hull city. Good solid team defending but total absence of any aggression (even when defending) or creativity. I believe, for other top managers (such as Guardiola) Arsene is simply easy to read and way to rigid about adapting his tactics. That was more than obvious in the second half yesterday as it was so many times over years. In general, we’re always having problems with teams… Read more »
Sell ozil and bring in payet. Payet can beat players, works hard, good with free kicks and can split defences with his passes. Ozil on his day is class, but we need someone who at least tries to show his class in every game.
Come the summer we’ll have Hasenhuttl move in and all the venagouts will fall silent for a couple of weeks before becoming hasenhuttlouts and then reminisce about how stable and wonderful everything was under Wenger.
I personally felt the “strength in depth” we had in midfield at start of season was somewhat illusionnary and that it was a bit of a mistake to have let Jack go on loan (with a bit of hindsight) With Santi older, we can expect the odd knock here and there from wear and tear issues. Elneny for me is a decent and hardworking back up for any player in midfield but he isn’t going to bring in anything extra. Ramsey can play deep midfield but is better where his instincts suit him in the final third. Should Ozil (god… Read more »