Arsene Wenger admits his side are unhappy with their league standing and pointed the blame at profligacy in front of goal and a leaky defence.
Arsenal currently sit in sixth position in the Premier League, 21 points behind runaway leaders Manchester City and three adrift of neighbours Sp*rs above them. While home form, one defeat to Manchester United aside, has been good, the run of results away from the Emirates has been a real cause for concern, as have costly individual errors.
“What we want is to stop conceding goals, stop missing chances, but as well I want the team to continue to play with the same spirit, the same determination and the same love of the game,” said Wenger ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Crystal Palace.
“That is for me important and is maybe the best way not to concede goals anymore.
“We should be higher [in the table] of course and we are not happy where we are, and we have to correct it. We do not play and put the effort in to be where we are, we want to be higher up.”
Having taken 25 points from a possible 30 at the Emirates, the boss was eager to play up the positives of the campaign although he also accepts that perhaps the balance between attack and defence can be worked on in 2018.
“We have been very consistent at home and the quality of our performances has been absolutely fantastic,” he said.
“We lost one game that even a neutral observer would concede that we had an outstanding performance in a unique game that we lost. Overall I believe the consistency is not in question.
“We have to find a balance, we are an offensive team and we take a gamble and a risk and we stand up for that but we have maybe to find a better balance between offensive and defensive efficiency.
“We always have a high number of players in front of the ball. If you look at the league you can analyse it in that way. You take team after team, how many players are in front of the ball when you attack?
“We are one of the teams in the league who has the most players in front of the ball when we attack, that means that for us to get back quickly and defend quickly and transition is absolutely vital.”
So our team can’t defend or score goals? I hope someone told them the sport is football?
Are we really an offensive team though? If we look at that ManU game, that’s an offensive team and we haven’t played that way for a long time.
A Mourinho team is offensive? You’re having a laugh, only his face is offensive.
He said the ManU game not the ManUre team
…..well I’m definitely offended by Manchester united….
Yeah, it’s hard to argue that we are an attacking team when our attack is so labored, tedious, boring, impotent, and slow. Liverpool and Kane FC are what we used to be, all attack – shit defense. Wenger needs to go, but everyone knows that except Wenger and Kronke
Kane fc..haha..I like that.
You mean English team too ?
Im not sure what we are anymore. Exciting? Once or twice a season. We are boring and predictable for most games. We struggle to score and more often than not cant defend. We lack identity these days. We are a team that for most part has no idea what we are or where we are going and as a club we have no ambition and lack direction on and off the field. As a team in think almost any manager could get what we are getting from this team at present.is Wenger getting the maximum from this squad..no where near.… Read more »
I think Arsene should have gone in a blaze of glory after 2014 FA Cup. I feared him staying for 2 reasons : the longer he stayed the harder it would be for him to leave with the adulation he deserves & the harder it would be for his successor to succeed. I have sadly been proved 100% right. This season is hard to watch but it is next season that really scares me; it is when we are going to see the horrible end result of Arsene not going when he should have. BFG gone. Alexis, Ozil almost certainly… Read more »
He will sign again to save us all
“…pointed the blame at profligacy in front of goal and a leaky defence.”
Yep, that’ll do it.
well… Arsene last summer you signed a new 2 year contract, because the board was happy with you and the position where Arsenal finished. The spirit and determination might be there but team is playing boring and mostly poor. After almost every game you say how fantastic we played and that we maybe made one or two mistakes but overall the quality is there. We are 6th so maybe we are not that quality and every mistake we make it costs us. I just wish he would admit that we stagnate under him more and more very season.
I genuinely wonder what it would take for the club to relive him from his position ahead of 2018/19. Would finishing 6th or 7th be acceptable, even if we win a cup? It’s so clear for everyone to see that the Manchester clubs are ahead of us due to excessive spending, Chelsea have been ahead for years and Liverpool & Spurs are simply better than us at the moment with better management.
Worrying times.
I think for what he did in the first decade and for having huge influence over the stadium and training ground constructions, the board simply will not sack him and are just waiting for him to bow out on his own.
7th is the new 4th for Wenger! I mean we have ‘No Petrol money’ just a billionaire who won’t put money in to compete & old Wenger as well, happy 2018
To be fair there have been a few important board level and backroom staff appointees that show we are ‘modernising’
Oh my! so Wenger does sees these things? There I was thinking the stubborn old man could not see things my way. So if he sees it and it keeps happening, does that mean he realistically does not know how to fix it? If we always have so many players in front of the ball and we cannot transition to defend quickly enough then it makes sense to change the system and not have so many far forward right? If he knew this struggle with transitions from attack to defense, why then buy a player like Xhaka? He has a… Read more »
The same Wenger who said and did the Invincibles. It’s so sad.
Gone are the days when he used to provide a wonderful insight to a game/performance.
Now we are the team who have the most players ahead of the ball but I fail to understand how that’s positive. Everyone seems to know that and easily counter us. It’s not an accident that the opposition scores with there first attempt on our goal. The opp managers gave such a simple job – ‘sit tight and defend, they will make a stupid mistake in our half, you can score at will’.
I believe it’s time for Wenger to go but find it very disrespectful to say stubborn old man. Show some respect to both Wenger and older people.
Wenger reminds me of an old professor at a Uni.
The type so long in the tooth and has been there for so long, he can just wing it and doesn’t even prepare semester sessions like he used to, because he can just do what he’s always done off his head. Even when times have changed and new students learn a different way and new young lecturers teach to match the new way, the old dog just still thinks he can just keep winging it.
If you weren’t going to be happy with a season your side were going to spend somewhere between 4th & 6th I would have thought it would make sense to get a squad in place before the season started that had the ability to do more than that.
When wenger says… ‘most players in front of the ball when we attack’ it’s very true and other teams are actually waiting for these moments to happen and then punish us. It’s been this way for years, some of our horrible/ heavy losses got started with us all bombing forward and getting caught out on the break.
If it’s in the teams DNA then wenger really should be getting players in who can cope with this style and have the ability to defend quickly as surly that would be a priority playing this way.
Sadly we have to honestly ask ourselves where Arsenal is likely to finish. City and probably United will easily finish ahead of us. We are really competing with Chelsea, Liverpool and Sp*rs for a top four spot. What is your confidence level for finishing above any of those teams. I believe we have exactly 1 win vs top 6 this year and precious few points against them. To me it seems we are cruising toward 6th through 8th. A Spring renaissance might just about lift us to 4th or 5th, but does that really feel like it’s in the cards… Read more »
Radical insight from Le Prof shows how he must impress Kroenke! If we score more goals and let fewer in we’ll be a better team! Give the man another contract.
Somewhat ironically Wenger arrived when we were 6-8th mid table fodder and despite his and our glory years, thats where he’ll leave us. Oh and yes i shouldn’t forget the cash cow emirates library, sorry, “stadium”.
and some amazing memories……the stuff of legends.
cheer up !! it was fun humping liverpool for 3 goals in 5 minutes….
lets enjoy ozil
So our league position is because we don’t score enough and we concede too many…
Insightful!
Am I the only Arsenal fan who feels utterly detached from this team and completely apathetic about anything Wenger says?
I’ve supported Arsenal for 29 years and this is the first time I’ve felt this way about the club.
No, you’re not. 39 years in my case.
Me too and there are a lot of us. This is why there’s not so much passion on the forums. I really respect the Prof but this is just no fckn fun at all
“We lost one game that even a neutral observer would concede that we had an outstanding performance in a unique game that we lost.”
– mentioned that Manchester United game, albeit indirectly 😀
If Wenger mentions that Man Yoo match one more time… I’m gonna hurt myself.
He will probably mention this game in his memoirs.
Listening to his pre match Prezzer, i honestly believe that Wengers not too warm on keeping Jacky Boy Wilshere beyond this summer. I don’t think he fancies handing out £100k plus per week to a player whom has a questionable injury record at best, whom lacks the athleticism to cover ground (despite a willing heart) and whom lacks the killer instincts of a No10 role. Add to that Jacks ego wont allow him to be a mere squad player and le boss is known to fold under player pressure, I honestly believe that Wenger will try and mug Jack off… Read more »
A lot of us are not happy with you Arsene, and haven’t been for a long time. Fortunately your time’s up either this summer or the next.
Don’t be so sure of that. He may yet sign another contract extension! Fun times!
The problem is that many many people are unhappy with Wenger but will do fuck all about it, they simply whinge and moan online but will do fuck all in the stadium where it actually might have some effect… that is the problem with so many arsenal fans, including bloggs, they know Wenger needs to go for the good of the club but will do nothing about it and when protests and distributions where organized they sat back sneering at those who tried to do something proactive, thinking they are somehow better than those “simple folk” . football is a… Read more »
Yeah? What are you doing?
Conversely, how deluded are you to think people who pay to go to football matches have any influence on what a collective of multi millionaires decide on what to do with the club and who manages it?
Yeah, it’s ridiculous to think the consumers have any influence on the buyers.
I’m sure if every ST fan stopped paying, nothing would change.
/rollseyes
Typical answer of a large amount of our fan base in the stadium,old middle class men with no fight or passion left in them, accepting the shite they see in front of them”what can we do about it”, well you could get off your arse and let the club and manager know how you feel, even Wenger said what stopped him signing the new contract sooner was how the crowd would react.the only way anything will change is if the fans do something about it
Bit of an Arse team, then?
We are one or two technical wizards shy of being truly outstanding as a team (even with Ozil and Alexis)
But we are also shy of being error free on the other end.
There’s no point saying we played outstanding when we concede from silly errors. Something is clearly rotten if that’s the case.
Our mental focus is so poor on the day.
It all starts in the midfield.