Arsene Wenger says his side were ‘very poor’ as defensive howlers helped Swansea City to a 3-1 victory over Arsenal.
The Gunners took the lead courtesy of Nacho Monreal’s fourth goal of the season but squandered their advantage within a minute when Sam Clucas netted.
A ridiculous miskick by Petr Cech was pounced on by Andre Ayew as the home side turned the screw after the break before Clucas made sure of the points.
Speaking to after the game, Wenger was incensed by his side’s abject display.
“I felt defensively we were very poor and made big mistakes,” he told the BBC. “It’s better not to talk about the second or third goals.
“Swansea were sharp, disciplined and hungry. Unfortunately I believe we were not good enough, I believe we were not disciplined enough.
“I don’t want to talk about second or third goals.”
Wenger was also asked about the possibility of Arsenal signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, spotted arriving at London Colney this afternoon, and about Olivier Giroud’s proposed move to Chelsea.
“We will know more about that tomorrow morning,” he said of securing a deal for the Gabon international.
“It’s a possibility,” he said of Giroud’s exit.
No shit, Sherlock. Trust us to make Swansea look like world-beaters.
I was about to write exactly the same thing and saw your comment which is first, I feel about as useless as this arsenal team or am I being to harsh on myself
You’re being too harsh on yourself. Now, if you were to wake up tomorrow having shit the bed, the comparison would be apt.
Lol
How come he is saying that our defending was not good enough after every such performance and then we do this again and again. I mean he doesn’t visibly make any changes , doesn’t change the team , the tactics or anything . What does he even do back there to get one of the highest paid jobs in the football. it’s about damn time fans kick out .
Until Wenger accepts that our mistakes are a result of the system we play and are the consequence of the opposition forcing those mistakes we will never eliminate then from our game.
We play a high risk defensive strategy and teams have worked out our pattern of play and exploit it, it’s not a question of just stop making mistakes, we have to change how we play to correct this from happening!!
The truth is Wenger isn’t capable of doing that and he has to be replaced for change to happen.
I agree we play a risky system but why are we so good at home? It is pretty clear we are easily to beat in away games, so why other teams don’t play the same at Emirates? I think there is more of a psychologically problem on our side. We need a couple successives wins away. Hopefully with Aubameyang we can do that
Because teams don’t commit the numbers to the press high up the pitch like they do when we’re away, and when they do they often get results, like Utd and Liverpool for example
John C
John C
John C
John C
One of the most uninspiring things to read.
If you’re looking for inspiration from an anonymous avatar on the internet I think you have bigger problems in your life to concern yourself with.
Says mr Glued-to-the-internet.
Shower of sh!te!
But its your philosophy wenger, I love it, please stay…
Just taking time out of my holiday in the alps to say that we are beyond repair now.
Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Sanchez, Ozil it doesn’t matter who we have playing for us. The results will always be the same under Arsene Wenger.
New players.
New manager next.
Just popped out of the jacuzzi in the Caribbean leaving a gaggle of Supermodels who are begging for my return to say; knob.
Can we still blame Sanchez?
This is precisely the reason he was so desperate to leave.
But he was a bad apple. that horrible desire to win and challenge for top top honours
How about RVP?
Its been happening for a long time now.
In other news, grass is green, water is wet, and the pope does indeed shit in the woods.
We were shit.
Time to move on monreal. Both goals his fault
Wanker
Surprised you pull Monreal out when all were shocking. I thought it was Bellerins worst game for us and Mustafa had a shocker! Chaka was consistent in his ability to giveback the ball away and was Iwobi even on the park? ShockING…just shocking.
Our attack was just as poor
100% GYWE. Sick of hearing about the defence. Yes, it’s shit….but we are a terribly boring team to watch going forward too. Anyone still clinging to the ‘we play attractive football under Arsene’ argument is utterly delusional.
We do sometimes play amazing football
Then other times we play like a bunch of schoolkids
‘Sometimes’ ? Yes. Often ? Absolutely not. If you’re boring to watch far more often than you are good to watch, then you are a boring team.
We haven’t played consistently great, fluid football in 10 years. IMO 2007/2008 is easily the best of the Emirates era in terms of pure creative fluid football. This year is easily the worst of the post Highbury era.
Sometimes being the operative word how many times have we played WELL this season let alone “amazingly” well !
Wouldn’t even say that anymore. We no more frequently score amazing team goals than any other top half team in the league. I’d argue Liverpool, city, Chelsea, spurs and United all score nice goals and pass the ball nicely with more frequency than us. We have no vision for this time and no discernable style. And my patience has well and truly run out with Xhaka and Mustafi. Not good enough.
I know. I’m bored with commentators saying that our passing isn’t as slick as it normally is. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times we’ve looked slick this season.
Well said mate we haven’t played attractive, exciting football for a long while now except on rare occasions this endless passing backwards and sideways at almost walking pace drives me nuts !! No one is willing to shoot first time and even on the odd occasion one does the technique is woeful always leaning back as they strike the ball when any schoolboy could tell them to keep their body and head OVER the ball it’s basic skills for beginners ffs !!! We have no clue against a packed well drilled defence !! We should be trying to move the… Read more »
We haven’t had the player that can beat 2 or 3 of the opponents to make the difference. We lack an outlet. Today its midfield. So the defense play stupid high risk balls instead. Truth be told, Jack does some of Santi’s ability but at least he can turn with the ball and carry it, engage opponents. We complain about Iwobi but he is another who is willing and has some ability to do this…although he is still far away from developed. BUT if we bank on Iwobi to replace what Alexis did committing the other side with his runs,… Read more »
I missed JW10. At least he goes forwards.
Yup, I call our offensive passing pattern the “horseshoe of impotency” or “U is for useless”
Watching Arsenal I sometimes think that the goal of the game is to keep the ball as much as possible.
This exactly . There is a difference between how city used possession to score goals and how arsenal only has possession and nothing else to show for . We just keep the ball and pass it backways sideways not knowing what the to do with the ball except ozil. This is not possession football. We had just one shot on target the whole game . Swansea created better chances and won the game deservedly despite the defensive mistakes arsenal made. Wenger coaching is ancient and he should have been out of the game a long time ago
Hungry erm, as in wanted it more, happens a lot these days sadly…..
Bombed Theo out for saying as much. Fingers crossed he shows some dignity and goes
Wenger Leave the club NOW.
Mkhi, welcome to The Arsenal.
You know he is really not an Arsenal player until he’s injured. In Wenger’s words ‘Mkhi is not 100% there yet’. He will once he gets injured and it’s a minimum of 6 weeks until he starts ‘running again’.
Initially 6 weeks becomes 6 months then he’s ours
and to our reality..
No sign of Aubameyang.
Probably finally figured out we lie 6th in league like his crap Dortmund side he’s trying to get away from.
I heard Chelsea are looking for a striker.
Really hope these new signings help us salvage this season. I think the players have given up on Wenger since we failed to win the league in 2016.
Sorry guy, this team is beyond salvaging with such abject, school-boy defending on show today.
The same pitiful defending we’ve seen for 10 years now. Going forward is now ponderous too.
Wenger’s repetitive post defeat comments are now boring too. What’s the point of recognising your errors if you do nothing to correct them?
That is exactly how I feel. The top players have given up on Wenger. When you see Wenger play Iwobi and Ramsey time & time again – it is beyond mind boggling that this stubborn man could still play them. Other than ex Sanchez, Ozil, Lac no one else would even make the bench in another top 4 club in europe.
We are actually now doing worse, in terms of points, in terms of points against the same teams we’ve played so far, and in position in the table, than in any of the previous 4 seasons (at least). I’m beginning to despair, and I’m usually a glass-half-full guy.
And I’m not enjoying it.
We were shit
How is it that we can be so good one game and so poor the next?
Yet again another Piss poor performance. We’re getting to see this kind of humiliating turd show way to many times.
Not even Lionel Messi and Neymar can bail this team with such shambolic defending.
This..!! Blame the manager, the board, the owner, hell what even the fans!! But no one can fix school boy errors which should just not happen at this level. Not at most levels for that matter!
The team lets everyone down time and time again….its time some start taking responsibility for not being able to do the “basic ” stuff even right on a regular basis..
PATHETHIC FRONT TO BACK !
Nonsense, they are coached and told to trust-the-quality-of-our-game in ALL areas of the pitch and as such the opposition know exactly when and where on the pitch they need to press our play. Take the first Swansea goal, Ozil has been press into the right back position by what 3 or 4 opposition players and our answer to this is for our right back Bellerin to vacate his defensive position and run forward for a pass, then Ozil trusting-the-quality-of-our-game tried to play the (very high risk) pass to Bellerin. It’s madness, the risk completely outweighed the reward, but it’s typical… Read more »
Particularly dangerous as we simply don’t have the quality of the player to play this “quality” game.
Wenger is a fraud, tired of talking about this turnip. Maybe in a couple of years the Board might make a decision. At this rate Wenger will die on the job. Kroenke is the root of all this shite, he encourages mediocrity.
What a bunch of twats
In terms of points we’re closer to relegation than to first place… -___-*
Better buck our ideas up or we could go down
Was Ramsey playing today? If so someone should have told him ‘feel free to join in when you’re ready mate’
And new signing (much better player, though that’s not hard) was left on bench. Ramsey is pants.
Completely agree, Where was he playing??? Was Wenger telling him to play 2nd striker and win the ball high up like he used to tell Coquelin???? Thought we would play 3 man midfield but we play Ramsey striker, Elneny CB and leave Xhaka alone in the middle as usual…Are we being trolled?
Judging by Kos and Mustafi’s performance on the ball today, maybe Sideshow Bob’s skillset is much needed after all…
I was so envious listening to the Swansea manager talking after the match, sounding like he had a game plan and instructing his players accordingly. I would love to have that sort of manager.
Yeh – he got the sack from the first division and is using the shite tactics of kick and run learnt there to play against football teams!
Beaten aw twice now. After so long in football and thousands of substitutions he might have an idea how to combat it
Aww, still bitter Arsenal got stuffed by a bottom of the league side?
Wenger is a dinosaur, embarrassing the club.
‘very poor’…massive understatement we were ‘piss poor’!
#sellxhaka #sellMustafi
#sellRamseytoSwansea
Someone tell Ramsey he’s not a striker.
That’s Wenger’s job. I’ve said this a hundred times, unless Ramsey is 100% an absolute idiot then he must be being told to play where he does. And if he isn’t doing what the manager tells him, he wouldn’t or shouldn’t be being picked every game. It’s all Wenger’s fault. Get him out, get any cunt in. Even fucking David Moyes could do better. At least we wouldn’t be conceding goals left and right. And fuck Pep while I’m here. ‘Oh booo hooo City don’t have enough money’ and then are about to spend about £120 million on 2 players,… Read more »
you make Arsenal great again
The problem is that we need a midfield runner like Ramsey, he will be error prone, but maybe he can create something at times, there should be defenders, midfielders around him who can tackle, track back, but look at Belerin, Mustafi, Xhaka, brain dead fancy dolls with stupid haircuts
I cannot agree more. These two are the consistent weak links in this team of convicts.
our worst ever signing, I am waiting for the proof that Wenger didn’t sign them
Drop Xhaka and Iwobi immediately. Piss poor. Shocking, abject, safe passing, no fight. As a team were woeful. Ozil only one who looks decent out there. Lacazette is feeding off scraps that someone with violent diarrhoea has shat on! Elneny and Xhaka sorry to say don’t deserve to wear shirt atm. Back to a Denilson song strength CM, snakes have more spine ffs. Ramsey looked rusty. Cechs time is up for me. Get Martinez in team asap, or perhaps Sczeney, oh no wait! Pissed off, im taking a break from watching and posting. Someone wake me up when he fucks… Read more »
I thought Elneny was pretty good.
Which means Wenger HAS to sub him.
I can’t believe he subbed him lol I’m glad I wasn’t alone. He tracked back and workd hard. Xhaka or Iwobi should have been subbed. AW know that we have 3 subs that can be used?
Ramsey ain’t rusty he’s shit
He lacks leadership. A cruel and sometimes unkind father figure who’ll unleash an almighty thundercloud of wrath upon his head whenever he strays from position.
That’s what he lacks! Grant him pain every time he pisses around and he’ll come round. Until that happens he’ll continue being shit.
Hurray another goon bites the dust!
Yup, same shite for the last 10 years
This shite is a new shite. Worst team I can remember under Wenger.
It’s getting harder to get angry about this sort of performance. It’s ludicrous, but it won’t change. We can’t go on like this, but we will.
Don’t remember being this apathetic about Arsenal in 40+ years of supporting them. There’s been worse times but at least there was a feeling of all pulling together & fight to it, not there now.
We’ve been here too often
I stopped being angry a good three seasons ago now. I still watch Arsenal and go to the odd game out of habit more than anything else, but the passion has long since departed. It will come back, but only when Wenger leaves. Even if the new man doesn’t work out, anything will be better than this stagnant, ineluctable descent into mediocrity and shittitude.
Nailed it!!
It is habit, I said exactly the same recently to someone. I managed to pack up the fags after 30 years ‘cos it was doing me no good & I didn’t like it anymore, supporting Arsenal feels the same at the moment
Watching Arsenal always reminds me of going to watch them as a kid with my father, and so I’ll always enjoy going to games; not to mention that I know lots of fans around the world would love to be able to go. But supporting a team is a two way street, and I’m not sure I can really remember the last time Arsenal excited us, at least on a consistent basis. It all feels a bit stale.
Sympathies with you,Liam- maybe if I stopped watching this dung pile of football that this team regularly turn out, I’d be able to stop drinking so much.. (hic!)
YAY
YAY another one!
“stagnant, ineluctable descent into mediocrity”
Lovely phrase Exiled. Might put it on the back of a rancid blue replica away shirt.
Arc at you with yer “ineluctable”.
Don’t even pretend you didn’t go to private school!
?
I’m an English teacher 😉
‘Ineluctable’ – good word! Had to look it up. ‘Shittitude’ wasn’t in the dictionary.
Wenger and the rest of the hierarchy and the owners have turned me totally off following Arsenal. Ten years of blatant fraud, incompetence and inefficiency – not worth my time, money or effort. Far more enjoyable things to spend my spare time on, still there is that very sad ache that Arsenal is being destroyed from within. Ten years ago we were on the cusp on pushing on to challenge for honours, now we are many years away from winning anything and have decided mediocrity is the club’s objective. I’ll pass to Wenger is gone, but actually it’s Kroenke who… Read more »
For all the hype regarding the transfer window we haven’t actually strengthened when we needed to most, if anything we’ve gotten worse over the two windows. And in terms of tactics this is the worst Arsenal side I’ve ever seen.
Xhaka and mustafi have never instilled confidence… Mkhitaryan will flourish, with PEA joining, I do hope we can turn things around. But defence is a serious problem now!
Wish we had a back 4 of Monreals.. ?
When it’s good it’s very good, but when it’s bad it’s horrid
John Cleese once said that great football is like jazz music. That display, and indeed quite a few abject efforts from our fine comedy club in recent times, don’t so much resemble jazz as the noise that I made as a seven year old boy when I caught an important part of my anatomy in my zipper.
In the name of God, Arsene: Go.
It has become pathetic.
I realy like Arsene Wenger,he is been a great servant to the club a true gentleman.But on thing i can not understand is,why doesn’t he work on the defensive side of the game .We almost never defend as a unit and we don’t look to have any defensive shape at all!Everyone wants to be on the ball and go forward but thats not possible.I remeber years ago when i was playing football, 5 or 6 players we would practice on our defensive shape and after everyone had figured out where they should be,we would play against against 4 or 5… Read more »
Listen to the ian Wright interview. Bould wants to do extra sessions with players but he’s not allowed
Christ! I’m really sorry to say that but with that set of mind, not even in a 100 years,will Arsene Wenger win the league.
Then Bould should resign if he has any integrity. By resigning he would heap more pressure on Wenger.
Sorry, but a multi Millionaire ‘a great servant to the club ‘ look up what being a servant meant mate. He (Whinger) has been pinching a living & fleecing the club for a decade, servant indeed! Oh and spinning out his dross for gullible idiots to buy into.
This.
£8.5 million a year to act like a cunt for a decade.
Manager thinks he owns the joint and the owner encourages it.
Disgusting.
Will a journalist ever have the balls to ask “do you still think you’re the best man for the job?”
They do it with every other manager
“I don’t want to talk about the second and third goals”
Why not? Don’t we as fans deserve an explanation? An acknowledgment that something is fundamentally wrong in the way that the team is set up and sent out to play? A mea culpa? Anything constructive, no matter how banal? This is what we get when there’s a man in charge of the club with no accountability. It annoys me that the journalists don’t push him more; I know he can be awkward, but it would be nice if they could ask him some searching questions.
We pushed Xhaka up so we can have a dedicated DM but we sold him lol Im confused. I reckon Xhaka’s lack of pace and athleticism has cost us 5 goals this season. (give or take 1). Specifically him not physically being able to either react quick enough, chase a player or arrive at a situation on time to do anything about it. So Wenger moved him up the past few games. Mustafi seems to have an issue with players playing balls through the gap he is supposed to cover between him and Kos. Cech is unfortunately done, beaten at… Read more »
Seriously, what in the fuck was that???
That was a new low…
Iwobi is just terrible. Fucking terrible. The sooner we get rid the better. Mkhitaryan should be starting from now on. No excuses. He seemed to click and was better in 5 minutes than Iwobi has been all season.
Thats harsh but I have to agree. lol He shouldn’t be anywhere near the attcking third. He shouldn’t be starting lol He hasn’t proven anything since his breakthrough year.
Just three things wrong with us – we can’t defend, have little creativity in midfield and zero threat up front. Our manager is unable to fix it and the board have just given him £55m to buy a player we could have bought in the summer who’ll end up being ruined by the same manager. Giroud has been disgracefully treated and we’re about to flog him to Chelsea for a knockdown price of £18m. Omnishambles.
I’d give you 100 thumbs up if I could!
He made a mistake taking off Elneny. Of the three centre mids on the park, he’s the only one who can be switched on defensively for 90 minutes. Xhaka was at fault for the first goal and again is not a defensive midfielder! Apparently he went for a holding midfielder late in the last window, this window we haven’t even been linked with one. Its clearly what we need. The defense will continue to play this badly if they’re given no protection. Its an embarrassing season which could get worse if these displays start to translate to our home games.
He had been booked – the pitch was slippery – if he’d been sent off you’d of all complained about it!
Lacazette was useless, Ramsey thinks he’s a striker, Giroud on with 15 minutes left and that FUCK UP by Cech!!! Anything I’ve missed? Probably, but what’s even the point anymore?
“We made mistakes”??? Is that what it’s called? Wenger, accept that the time has come. Step down!
I refuse to believe we are actually as bad as this. Someone get this circus back on track!
I agree we need a new manager but we also need a new central midfielder and to replace mustafi with a centre back. This is one of the poorest Arsenal squads I can remember for some time. No wonder we wanted Mhiki, the lack of technical skill in the midfield is alarming. Xhaka and Ramsey both woeful tonight.
What little Mhiki featured today he looked good. Still not infected with the mediocrity that seems to befall every player who signs for us of late.
Wenger, I beg you, don’t do it to him as well. Enough!
Heard a rumour Aubameyang is in London trying to buy a bottle of tippex
Kroenke, Wenger etc.. You ruined this beautifull club! You are traitors!
I could wax poetic but I won’t. Our team…a bunch of twats.
Don’t forget the twat manager who buys and “organises” the twat players.
2years ago there was unrest cos Wenger would say if he would stay or go. Squandered a cup chance by not buying in the Jan transfer window only to let Leceister slip ahead while the Major 4 clubs were at their worst. This year it is the Sanchez unrest ( no fault of Sanchez). The Top players want to leave as Arsenal lack ambition and a coach who does not have a clue. Really …you play Ramsey and Iwobi repeatedly as they fail you every single time. Shame on you. Just leave. Besides the glory days was no credit to… Read more »
Blah blah blah blah blah blah
captain hindsight to the rescue..pfft
How many more times must we witness Wenger bemoan the paucity of our performances?
What in the actual fuck does Steve Bould do? We obviously don’t have a defensive coach, but I assume Bould at least mentions something about defending once in a while? But I guess (a Wenger like trait) Bould must do crosswords every hour of the day he is awake, or play with lego,? It seems from the shower of shit that played against the mighty welsh warriors that is Swansea, he isn’t working with the defense. They played like a bunch of complete cunts, in a snowstorm, with eyelids sewn shut with their fingers up their shit holes. I thought… Read more »
Yes, mate, go and add some more quality to the front and keep neglecting the back selling any decent players (Coq). Xhaka is useless as a defensive midfielder, loses posession, doesn’t track the opponents, he doesn’t see what’s going on around him. Better not to talk about Cech and what you’ve done with Szczesny. This club is becoming a mid-table team as we watch it.
I’m just disappointed that after so much money spent we cannot beat the last team in the table because of amateur mistakes. This is a disgrace
When Walcot made a very honest assessment after the Crystal Palace defeat that ‘they wanted it more than us’ it cost him his place at Arsenal and tonights ‘performance’ was yet again another example of a supposedly inferior team winning quite comfortably simply by their greater desire. Why do our players appear not to care?
How does Wenger not see that he is no longer any good as a manager? Xhaka and Elneny are so ordinary how come Wenger plays them? Can’t he see they are championship level? The minute you take Jack out of the team they are clueless. Messi and Ronaldo would be rubbish under Wenger. He doesn’t motivate he confuses. Total rubbish.
arseblog should be interesting tomorrow
I’m surprised he didn’t see how bad we were in the first half and didn’t do anything about it!
I was hoping he’s long enough in the game to notice these things 🙁
Sir, it is time to either fall on your sword, or Hari Kari.
Please acknowledge.