Arsene Wenger admits he fielded a strong side against Lincoln City in the hope that his beleaguered players would regain their confidence after a torrid run that has included five defeats in seven games.
The Gunners had to scrap for the lead against their non-League opponents but cruised to a 5-0 win after the break as Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey and an own goal added to Theo Walcott’s first half opener.
Speaking after the match, the boss admitted that the mid-week thumping by Bayern influenced his starting lineup.
“I didn’t want to gamble today because I knew that it was very important to win the game and I felt as well that the team had performed well against Bayern and I wanted to give them a chance to find their confidence back by winning the next game.
“That’s why I maintained 90 per cent of the players in the starting line-up. They have been hit very hard after the game [against Bayern] and that is always dangerous because your confidence can go very quickly.”
Wenger also noted that his players, despite being strong favourites at kick-off, were nervous in the opening exchanges.
“We were a bit nervous because your confidence drops when you don’t have the results.
“The team was unjustifiably criticised for our last game against Bayern Munich because we had an outstanding game. The game was killed not by the fault of the players but we have to take a distance with us and have a look at a bigger perspective than people want to do.
“Overall we had to respond today and that’s what we did. We had an outstanding game against Bayern Munich but our game was killed by the referee. I watched this game three times now and it’s still the referee who killed our game.”
Hmm yes I agree the ref killed our game but that doesn’t excuse shipping 5 goals at home. I’m still on the fence with that one.
Trying to understand something. If Wenger is the problem with Arsenal and goes. That means we have better players than any squad in the Premiership and Europe! So what I would like to understand is which manager can come in at the moment and make this squad world beaters? Because I don’t think the board understand this is the ambition of the fans. Will spending money change things?! I don’t think so! Fans need to be patient with this club as always, even more patient now more than ever. Mr Wenger is an exceptional manager. I think the real problem… Read more »
Arsenal have become a punching bag! Who stands up for Arsenal. Even after we were given the tag of if you kick them they won’t play. I feel this club is being bullied. Just look at the murder Maureen has been getting away with!! COYG don’t be foolish
Agree Uncle D. What makes this even more frustrating is that our own so called fans are many of the perpetrators.
“I felt as well that the team had performed well against Bayern” – Shows he has no ambition left. There isn’t a manager with an iota of ambition in him on this planet, who would say something ridiculous like that. Its borderline madness to say “played well” after a 10-2 aggregate drubbing. Its heartbreaking to see the levels to which the ambition and desire for improvement of the team that I support, have plunged. He should be immediately shown the door just for that statement alone. I see the fellow supporter effectively implying that blame Wenger only if the squad… Read more »
Those who want Wenger to leave are standing up for Arsenal.
What are the fans afraid of anyway. That if Wenger leaves the club won’t be able to make its annual UCL Rf of 16 exits next season?
Everything you say is an echo of the media! Shallow assumptions. How many teams have achieved this so called easy task with the situation of financial problems Arsenal had in the past. It’s just in the last two years or so we have real money in the bank and world players don’t come cheap. Any one has a right to an opinion but remember to treat others as you want to be treated. Karma they say is a bitch that bites
Financial Problems?
Arsenal are 7th pm the club rich list and are ahead of Chlesea.
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/deloitte-football-money-league-2017-arsenal-top-london-rankings-but-manchester-united-pull-clear-at-a3444086.html
Arsenal have money but waste most of it the wages of the over-rated and over-paid inconsistent mediocre players, that Wenger has built the team around, and who bottle it every season.
As for the lecture on the treat others what are you even talking about.
I don’t know about your achievements in life. But if i can achieved half of what he has, I will die happy. There are people you just can’t please, this is life.
Oh more relaxing on past glories talk. What has Wenger achieved in the past 12 years.
Not winning the league and UCL. Thats what. Not even challenging for the league.
Shame the ambition of the club’s supporters has totally disappeared, that they consider making up the numbers in EPL and UCL as an achievement.
As for achieving what Wenger has achieved, I have good news for you. In the past 12 years neither you nor Wenger have challenged for the league. So, far from achieving half, yours and Wenger ‘s achievements are exactly equal. Congratulations!
Offside!
‘I didnt want to gamble with Lincoln,’ however I was happy to gamble away at Chelsea, Liverpool and Bayern. Makes perfect sense.
“I think the real problem is the leadership of the club, they are not proactive media wise to shield the fans and players.”
I am sorry what? Lets keep losing 10-2 on aggregate to teams and instead of spending money to improve the squad, just pay the press not to talk about the humiliating defeats and ‘shield’ the fans and players.
That will have us winning the league and UCL in no time. Hell we could even pay the press to print that we have won both this season.
I don’t understand where the ambition of this club’s supporters went.
Referee was the reason we were knocked out. Case closed. We were hammering them in first half. Barcelona did it and we should have done it if the retarded shit referee let us
Yeah you’re right, but hey, what else is knew. This isn’t our first rodeo, we’ve been playing in Europe for 20 years – yet we still show the same naivety as if it was our first year in the competition. When we went 2-1 down in the first leg, Arsene should of told the players to shut it down, 4 banks of 4 and take the result home, or since we all know Arsene expects players to take responsibility one of the senior players should of told the squad, we are locking this game down, everyone dig in we aren’t… Read more »
A 5-1 defeat and outstanding game? How do you achieve results if you see heavy defeats as outstanding games?
Fair comments from the boss.
Really?
Only Wenger could claim that the record largest ever defeat at the Emirates Stadium was ‘an outstanding performance’.
And people question why he’s rapidly losing credibility.
Agree. He should be sacked immediately just for that statement alone. No manager of a self-respecting club will say yeah we played after a 10-2 drubbing.
“I didn’t want to gamble against Lincoln, like I did against Liverpool.”
“I didint want to gamble with my chances of signing a new contract”
Yeah I don’t want to gamble against Lincoln but I will in the league and champions league.
Don’t worry Wenger you will probably gamble in the next round.
Happy with the win and the progression…that being said, don’t let’s get distracted at the bigger picture. That Wenger is no longer good enough at the elite level. We keep the protests going till he respects us and quits.
Who the fuck is guaranteed to ‘be good enough at the elite level’ – a lot of people thought Mourinho and Guardiola were going to be fucking geniuses this year and they’re not! Klopp’s not looking too good either – Wenger is our best bet! I’m going to keep protesting at twats like you until you have the decency to show him some respect and for you to stop talking bollox.
They all 4 get what he done at the club we would not have what we have with out him look at the people what’s protesting with the banners they r only kids still in there dads ball bag when we was top dogs
I’m a twat for stating my opinion on my club and manager lol, same folks who asks us to “respect” him don’t respect us, they can’t disagree without getting in their feelings, any opinion that calls for a managerial change is deemed disrespectful…y’all would probably have said Martin Luther King was disrespectful for his civil rights protest…I also like how you left out new coaches like conte,ancelotti,allegri etc from your list of “geniuses”.
I really hope and pray you are not drawing a comparison between the manager protests and MLK-led civil rights protests … woah boy.
Delusions of Arsenal fans reach new heights. These idiots are already fantasizing about the glory awaiting them in the post-Wenger years.
Wenger Out crowd trying to claim kinship with the civil rights movement now.
Higihaga, those protests going on at the moment are fucking embarrassing!
Bollocks. Even if one was to qualify comparing your rights as a fan to the injustice met out to millions of African-Americans… Martin Luther King didn’t make any one person his hate figure. Your first three words are the truest you’ve ever spoken.
Oh dear Higihaga, read your post and you will understand why you have no respect. If you are still not sure look up the word ‘perspective’ in any English dictionary.
@SSS – Those three managers you quote haven’t completed a full season at their current clubs. How many seasons has Wenger had to address the same old problems?
Also, when you say Wenger’s our best bet. Best bet for what? Best bet not challenging for the league? Best bet to get dumped out of Round of 16? Best bet to get hammered by a big club away from home?
Would appreciate an answer please. Thanks.
But teams being managed by your list of coaches can, for a fact, outshine, outclass and beat Wenger’s team.
The point is I’m pretty sure Guardiola Mourinho or Klopp would win more than zero leagues if given 14 years of full authority and trust. Maybe a couple of CL titles too.
We will take your word for it because clearly you know everything about everything
Interesting that comments like these can massively downvoted when we win but are wholeheartedly supported when we lose. Shows the fickleness of many. Though I believe those who want a managerial change are looking far more long-term than those who want things to remain the same
What about the ones who want things to be civil and dignified no matter who stays and who goes.
It’s time to protest against the defectors who are trying to hound the greatest manager we’ve ever had out of our club.
yeah, maybe like some form of supporting type thingy right?
You arent good enough to be an Arsenal fan. The boss is going nowhere. One loss (which was referees fault) and some shitty “fans” want the boss out. pffft
Troll
Hope to see more from Ramsey-Xhaka Partnership !!
Dat partnership doesn’t work, move on
Xhaka on loan next year to a club that can indulge his recklessness while he continues to learn. Many can pass well at Arsenal, well not good as him, but well enough.
Ramsey did better with Ox back next to Xhaka. That’s the pairing I’d like to see more of if Ox can stay fit.
Ramsey needs a freer role to do what he does best. And shooting practice.
Unfortunately for him we’ve got at least one more who needs a free role so he’s got to wait in line. But I did like him at Bayern as the advanced of three when we need to lock up the middle more.
What does he do best
Smile after missing?
While Ramsey is up and down, I always feel like we get more out of Ozil when he plays. Having a CM who can interchange positiions with Ozil so that Ozil can pick the ball up from deep at times makes us so much more unpredictable and more able to dictate games. IMO one of our problems this season has been our predictable CM pairirng. None of Xhaka or Coq can make an offensive run and can’t do much else than a sideways pass in the final 3rd. Ozil has also suffered from this as he has been locked to… Read more »
Have to somewhat agree with the manager on that one. Was much more aggrivated by the 2nd half beating in Munich rather than the reverse fixture in London. When you see the soft penalties that Barca got at home to PSG and the BS non call on Alonso and crap call on Kos, that ref really did kill the game. You can’t play Bayern with 10 men and expect anything other than a beat down. It’s just a shame that the first 50 mins of that game gets completely overlooked because of the lopsided score because that’s the best we… Read more »
I don’t agree. The return leg was a no-brainer. Get some self-respect back. We had no chance bar a ref determined to look the other way while we dived our way to a 6-1. So in retrospect to allow a 1-5 to happen is stupid anyway you look at it. The players and Wenger did their own good 50 min fightback a disservice when they couldn’t adapt to being a man down and possibly playing for a 1-1 draw or at least avoiding another drubbing. Football isn’t always about playing pretty. The ref was a c*nt but mature teams play… Read more »
Can’t blame the players for not really caring at that point, the match was over and it really didn’t matter what the score would be. You could have blown the whistle for the match after the red card, wouldn’t have complained.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
Who controls the crack pipe says weird shit.
Lol….you, my friend, left me in stitches
Can we read your read your haikus too?
straight outta 1984
Christ. And it’s those comments that show there will be no progression for this club. Stuck in a rut, everyone else’s fault
Phil Sadler did you thumb yourself up? Also, let’s don’t get distracted at the bigger picture…
Pun?
Double entendre
If enough lager do you sup, rest assured you will throw up.
Who’s next with a trite saying?
In my opinion, this is part of the issue with wenger’s management: he justifies poor performances by the players. I hope a different message is given behind the scenes, but the simple fact is we haven’t been good enough to realistically challenge in the ‘big boy’ competitions this season. Great win today, and regardless of managerial debate let’s get back to fucking Wembley. COYG!!!
I totally agree with you. I have no idea why he defends and even worse is happy with piss poor performances. This is a huge issue. If you kept on doing shit work at your job but your boss kept telling you that you were great would you ever get better or improve? What would be the point since he is already happy with what you are doing. He does it all the time and it creates a brutal culture in your club that accepts mediocrity. A few weeks ago at my job a good friend of mine did something… Read more »
He doesn’t criticize their performances in public to the media is all; that’s good management.
I’m sure behind closed doors he directs his players to read the Arseblog News comments section to get their daily dose of criticism!
A team totally devoid of confidence facing a managerial change and an exodus of its top players after failure in 3 out of 4 competitions doesn’t need more ass kicking. Simple.
Props from the Lincoln City manager: “People criticise Arsene Wenger, and have criticised him this week, but anyone who really knows football and see the way those Arsenal players move, and their method and their understanding of each other’s space and tactically how intelligent they are, that comes from good coaching, no doubt about that,” Cowley said. “I’m not going to say it was great to watch because it was tough to watch. But it was a football education for sure.” You don’t hear that very often these days.
I’d rather be hearing that from the manager of a premier league team we’ve just beaten but it’s a start
Arsenal did the job and that was a welcome development. Thing to notice was how comfortable Bellerin, Mustafi and Gibbs were in Lincoln’s half as opposed to owning their own territory. One thing is to lack good defensive players, another is for them to believe defending is boring so let’s keep attacking. Arsenal has lacked a good defensive coach for years. More than the celeb ex-players (Petit, Vieira, Henry) it is the failure to sign real defensive coaches who can compensate for his free-flowing possesssion excesses, or at least provide a strong base for it that riles me most about… Read more »
That was a long-winded and subtle insult to Liverpool.
“We had an outstanding game against Bayern”. Outstanding apart from the fact we lost 5-1 (again) but I suppose it’s easy to be picky.
We did ‘stand out’ as a deluded self-destructive team. Till PSG did one better.
It just might be that the younger generation who has seen only the recent Arsene years is clamouring for change.
Every generation needs a revolution – and as living is so easy these days maybe these guys have empty lives. So they are tying to make a revolution out of a football club and its future. It’s just football. Support you team first !
Fans need to stop the rubbish at the stadium. It serves no purpose other than stew the toxic atmosphere. Save the banners for the last days of the league not now when there is still plenty to play for. Sure the big prizes have alluded Wenger yet again but we still have a fantastic chance at winning the FA cup and regain the title as the most decorated in this prestigious competition. We also have to make sure we hit our minimums which is a very high level to achieve over 2 decades uninterrupted. This despite all the managers that… Read more »
I’m not saying Wenger should stay but there is certainly no need for Wenger to MUST step down immediately.
Of course if he does not hit his minimum that will be a different issue.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I belive Wenger needs to go because he has not kept up with the development in modern football in the last ten years. You have to be more focused on the defencive part. We have to many players that do not know how to defend as a team. This has been a problem for years and when we meet the top teams we get thrashed! We have seen in the stats against the other top english/europeisk teams every year. Wenger is not able to do anything about… Read more »
Mind Numbingly Unimaginative: Repeating that bullshit quote about insanity and expecting anyone to give a fuck as in “ah never thought of that one before”.
Your other points are fair but fucking hell, that quote again. Thumbing you down for that one.
“Mind Numbingly Unimaginative”
Yes that is Wenger in a nutshell for the last decade 😉
Wenger please just go, your past it give someone else a chance because you’ve made my beloved club a laughing stock,but my feeling is his not going leave and our club will get worser under his clueless management. More sad days lie ahead of us and our gutless board can’t do anything about it. Wenger out
You’ve made Arsenal more of a laughing stock that Wenger and Kroenke. Next time when you sit in the crowd refusing to cheer for an Arsenal goal, boo yourself and cry yourself to sleep.
Sir demands stains I am not saying that Wenger is a shit manager I am saying that I hope he doesnt stay now we have won against Lincoln. Wenger has done what he can with the club and I don’t think he can do anymore he needs to move on.
Also to do with Sanchez and Ozil if they don’t want to be apart of arsenal football club.
“The team was unjustifiably criticised for our last game against Bayern Munich because we had an outstanding game.” I think the critics from the medias, pundits, and fans is fair enough, we all can see that our players capitulated in both legs after Kos left the pitch. Humiliation at Munich is a disgrace since we play against them 11 vs 11 and yet the players gave up after they scored the 2nd and 3rd goals, i mean it’s a two legs competition, lose 3-1 is not a nightmare because we can beat them 2-0 at our home. And then we… Read more »