David Luiz says Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City was all his fault following a terrible 27-minute performance off the bench in which he gifted the reigning champions two goals and got sent off.
Seemingly eager to speak to Sky Sports to make a public apology to fans and teammates, the 33-year-old rambled about his contract situation, hinting that his indecision about whether to stay at the club had somehow played a part in this evening’s horror show.
Luiz’s current contract is due to end on 30 June and the club are known to be keen to retain his services until the end of the current campaign and, if you believe Mikel Arteta, for potentially another year after that.
“It was not the team’s fault, it was my fault,” Luiz said.
“I take the decision to play, I should take another decision the last two months but I didn’t.
“Today I think the team did well, especially after they went down to 10 men. The coach is amazing, all the players did amazing, it’s just my fault.”
Asked by Geoff Shreeves to clarify his point, he went on: “I should have taken a different decision, in the last two months and I didn’t.
“It’s about my contract, if I stay here or not. I have 14 days left to be here. And that’s it. So today was my fault.”
Asked a third time whether that meant he wanted to stay at the Emirates, he continued:
“A different decision, to decide to try to decide my future, to try to decide as early as possible but I didn’t. I don’t want to use that as an alibi or an excuse. It’s my fault and that’s it.
“I love to be here, that’s why I continue to train hard. That’s why, I came here today. That’s why, I try to do everything.
“That’s why I said to the players [after the game], “nobody needs to speak”, I need to show my face and be here. So, I want to stay. The coach knows. The coach wants me to stay. We are waiting for the decisions.”
While all is obviously not well in the Luiz camp, Arteta said in his own post-game interview that his opinion of the player has not changed.
We wait to see what happens next.
How that Koscielny situation was handled by the club doesn´t speak well of Sanllehi and co. Luiz has always stupid decision in him against tougher opposition. That contract extension should be taken off the table to be honest, bring in one more solid CB + Saliba and rebuild. If by any chance Luiz stays his role on the pitch should be very limited in my opinion. Also Mari was worrying physically. I would gladly see the back of all three Mustafi, Sokratis and Luiz after this season. I am tired of this Ozil´s shit now.
Sanlehi and Edu have done a decent job bringing in talents like Martinelli, Pepe etc. But I don’t think I can ever forgive them for the way they made Koscielny look like the bad guy last summer. There were several sources (including from the player himself) who stated that the club agreed near the start of the 18/19 season that Koscielny was allowed to leave in the following summer. They had an entire season to scout replacements, but then end up shopping in the bargain bin because errr…they were surprised that Koscielny still wanted the club to follow through on… Read more »
Regime change, all bets were off. Koscielny wasn’t complaining when he was paid for a year to recuperate. My days of feeling sorry for millionaires are over.
Imagine fans of your own club endorsing a player going on strike. A captain even. One of the only players in his 30s we’ve given a long-term contract to. A man who foolishly tried to engineer a free transfer despite having a year left on that contract, to take the place of a player Bordeaux sold for 27m euros. Arsenal were absolutely correct to hold out for a transfer fee. Who the hell gives contracted players away for free? And after finally getting his way, the guy discards the football shirt of the team he’s leaving for the team he’s… Read more »
I wish I could thumbs up your comment twice. Absolutely spot on!
Completely agree about the shambolic mess with Koscielny. I never saw him as the villain. As for bringing in talents, I think the jury is still very much out on Pepe. Martinelli, a brilliant find but doubt how much those two can take credit for that.
martinelli looks like hope. i see him having the potential to turn into a suarez (who keeps his teeth to himself of course). pepe on the other hand is meh. i guess i wont mind sacrificing the striker position and trade laca for Partey, and probably have to sell auba cos he aint gonna sign da thing, and there’s also no point keeping him in his final season cos without significant investments we’re not going to beat the rivals to the CL spot. I’d seriously focus on building up a solid foundation and flow of play by getting 2 solid… Read more »
Gazidis actually offered him a new 2 year contract and a coaching job after that. They agreed. When Gazidis left, Raul withdrawn the offer and gave him a shit 1-year deal.
We demonstrated our loyalty to Lolo by giving an injury-prone 30yr old the security of a long-term contract. He did not deserve any more special favours from us.
Kos was always a top pro, the fact that he made such a stink, a guy who has kept his head down his entire career, says everything. That could only have been from a legitimate grievance. Would be very disappointing to learn that Sanllehi had any part in making things difficult for Kos, especially if this is true.
it depends on when kos informed them. it’d be understandable that sanedu could be actively seeking a replacement had they been informed early. but if they were informed in end jul/ beginning of aug, then they’d have had difficulty looking for a replacement cos they had to spend time wiping shit off their pants after shitting themselves. i guess the nearest toilet to clean up would then be in chelsea (nobody goes to spurs to clean their pants cos it’s a shit hole down there)
My opinion has not changed either….
The only way I see him paying for us is as a defensive midfielder. Although he mainly played as a CB in his career I think DM is his best position. Chelsea fans loved him there. Emery tried him there once but he quickly got injured.
David Luiz shouldn’t even get a game on playstation for us. I will never play him.
The only way I see him playing for us is… wait, I don’t. Not again. Ever.
People need to seriously have a look at the role that Raul and Edu are playing in our club….
What is Edu’s role, exactly? Apart from being mates with Kia Joorabchian, I mean.
Edu’s goodwill as part of the invincibles has nearly dried up. will be under massive pressure soon.
High time.
Sanllehi … he’s a total farce.
The serious decline at the club has coincided with his arrival and rise to power.
Edu is at the club what, 6 months? Too so to judge hime.
Raul is a slime ball. Get rid of.
yup. raul is the root to all this shit. makes shitty deals. luiz for rumoured total 20+ mil? high loan fee for cedric who hasnt even played a game for us? ram left for free?
this guy is full of shady deals and high agent fees.
Things weren’t great with Gazidis either.
I think ever since Dein left Wenger lacked a person to push him to close on deals, and we’ve since had two charlatans come in who don’t give a sod about the club.
I completely agree, ever since Hill-Wood did the dirty on Dein and brought in the yank, it’s been down hill since then
It was Dein who brought Kroenke in.
I don’t quite understand this, but let me try: the club didn’t extend his contract and his contract was technically up. He didn’t want to continue playing and risk injury/his next contract and so didn’t want to play/give 100%.
Is that what he’s apologizing for?
I don’t understand it either, but this is the most sense I’ve yet seen made of it, well done.
Well at least he’s resolved any contract indecision with that spectacle.
Luiz should go
Yup. We need to move on from these f-Ing error prone players. God damn it, when is this going to happen?
Does anybody know how many penalties he has given away this season? Im sure it’s at least 4
4, one every 6.5 games.
A mate text me this;
One red card every 160 games for Chelsea.
Once every 13 games for arsenal.
Gave away a penalty once every 53 games for Chelsea
Once every 6 for arsenal.
What is he trying to say??
He’s trying to say nothing.
It’s not an excuse, I’m just going to mention it in a press conference after a match where I massively bollocksed up. It’s all very well saying David Luiz is a passionate and vocal leader, but that really doesn’t matter if you’re just encouraging people to play better in order to cover for your brain farts. The late, late, panic recruitment of David Luiz Is a symptom of the chaotic management and misplaced priorities behind the scenes at Arsenal. Why would they extend his contract? Why hasn’t a decision been made before now?
“I thought I’d try to play brinkmanship with the club and it massively blew up in my face. Now I want to stay.”
how about bollocks? Go,
Haha!! Good work sir
Precisely what was in between the lines
This is the best comment about the situation.
We have enough cover at CB especially with Saliba coming next year. I’d rather keep Mustafi or Sokratis if we need some error-prone expensive aging cover at CB.
I think he’s hinting that if he hadn’t pee’ed around delaying his decision then the contract would have been sorted and he’d have been in the starting lineup, thus ready and in the right mind to not play like a donkey?
The contractual response to this will be instructive. Can Raul re-sign one of his mates players after fucking up massively, yet again?
If yes, then nothing has been learned and it is all about financial backscratching.
If no, then maybe, just maybe, the days of being legged over are ended,
What a horrible performance. OK Luiz was the culprit but honestly the whole team was terrible. It was like watching a Premier League side vs a non-League side. I don’t even think the first 20 minutes were good. It just took City time to start going. I honestly don’t even know where Arteta should start.
The tools the respective managers have to call in are vastly different. One side has no budget, because it has no money. The other has no budget, because a budget implies limitation. We have to give Arteta years to unpick the clusterfuck which the Kroenkes, Gazidis, Wenger, Emery have put in place.
What happened With Torreira and Pepe ?
Tactical.
they are being saved for the relegation six-pointer against Brighton on Saturday … David Luiz is crap, always has been. The General Clusterfuck of leaders needs to go …
Sunday League players would have cleared the ball for the first goal and the penalty was like watching Frank Spencer tackle Drogba. As for the lightweight midfield … Jesus wept with laughter on the bench. Pray for us.
Doubt Torreira is fit enough yet, he’s only had a few full sessions with the team post leg break. Pepe, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If we can’t do better than Dave Luiz, what’s the point?
Confession of a Hungarian fan ithout any hatred: I was so happy and calm (in terms of football) without having to worry about Arsenal in the past 3 months. Felt like being a fan of this club during these couple of years was a curse that I have to live with and don’t get me wrong it caused me so many amazing memories but at least the same amount of frustratrion and embarrassment as well. Compared to that calm state of mind without having PL , waking up in the morning I was already stressed after realising we had a… Read more »
Sir, from a man who has had the privilege of attending for nearly 50 years; keep the faith
Well said.
It probably will – once or twice, over a lifetime of nights like this.
But that’s football, that’s life.
If you prefer to root for a team which always wins, there’s Bayern Munich and the rule-breaking cunts we played yesterday.
I can’t blame him too much. …he is what he is. And truthfully we were already waning first half even with parity. Ceballos-Guendouzi-Willock as hard as they tried (and they did) to me the wrong call. We were dropping deeper and deeper I counted at least 4 shots saved brilliantly by Leno in a 5 to 10 minute spell before inadvertently Sterling converted. If you keep putting any defense under duress continuously something would give. We had issues finding our players higher up and that was another issue. Luiz as I mentioned from… Read more »
OMG.
I’m agreeing more and more with Santori.
Oh, wait. Arsenal Football club is back to playing football. Right.
🙂
Please chose not to return, I’ve had enough of these kind of performances from him.
I think he’s trying to say his mind wasn’t in the right place, the contract decision should have been wrapped up earlier, and that he shouldn’t have been playing without it being resolved.
Yeah. Probably why he wasn’t in the starting XI from the kick-off
Fool. We all saw that world cup game and still convinced ourselves there was something left of this guy. Thats how nice we are.
Having to take my dog on an emergency visit to the vet right about kick off time put things into perspective and took the edge off this loss. At least a bit. I honestly thought we were going to get utterly undone. Yes, we were outplayed, but we hung in there *almost* until half time. Then the customary brain fart and the extra special bonus brain fart really did for us. Having just watched the match, my thoughts are: 1) Leno can be very very good, and I long for the days when he no longer has to be… Read more »
Hope the dog is doing ok! ✌️
Many thanks 🙂
Funny, how the people who were defending David Luiz few days ago are not here. I wonder if Martin watched his first ever Arsenal game.
Give Luiz credit for putting his hand up immediately and accepting blame. There is nothing wrong with that.
But sheesh he had a shocker tonight. The guy can put in some brilliant performances but then he throws this type of game in to mix it up. At 33 yrs of age, his time is up.
these abramovich inside jobs has to stop!
The issue with Luiz isn’t his character – he’s evidently an admirable guy. The problem is that throughout his career he’s been liable to the massive gaffe – usually arising from lapses in concentration. That will not change now. Regardless of the wisdom of his recruitment – which is debatable – his potential extension has also been badly mishandled. The club needs to be clear and decisive about his situation. If an extension was not on the table he shouldn’t have been in the squad today. If a decision hasn’t been made, surely today’s display should force their hand?… Read more »
MC embarrass Arsenal. Arsenal have no chance of winning the cl. Its better they are out of Europe and the gaping terraces staring at the owner.
Where were MC when Arsenal and MU were slugging it out for epl. Its the
billion dollar investment in quality players.Thats the difference between Arsenal and the elite.
Mark my words. Soon Arsenal will be just an ordinary London club
Who would have thought that sending in a clown against Manchester City would lead to this shit show.
I love my squad. But I refuse to watch this rushed back garbage the remainder of the season It’s ridiculous
I dread this squad, so lacking in quality everywhere. Would be happy to see everyone one of them over 23 moved on. Couldn’t care less about Auba and Ozil etc. Rip it up, again, and properly start afresh
This is pathetic.
Fire this moving disaster area.
Christ on a bike.
Another embarrassing Arsenal performance.
Arteta. What the Actual Fuck was that? This is just more bullshit. Leaves tens of millions of pounds of attacking ability at HOME. Not even on the bench. No Torrieira. Not a single shot on goal. That’s an embarrassment. I don’t give a toss about Arteta’s clever sayings or his supposed Pep-pedigree. He’s been a fucking disaster. Nothing’s changed. We still can’t defend. We still have no set starting 11 that looks like it belongs in the Premier League. To hell with Auba. Sell him and buy a midfielder that can create chances, carry the ball… Read more »
What was he talking about? A very confused man with destructive attitude.
Just piss off back to Chelsea.
he’s obviously not thinking about staying, cos if he’s staying, he’d be focused. if he’s leaving, he’s distracted and wouldnt want to get injured so as not to affect his next move.
Peter c and David L, I never liked them
All players from Chelsea including Benayoun
He should never put a Arsenal shirt on again, he as been a liability for Arsenal since day one
“Fans blame Luiz for defeat and lament our contract decision”
City must have been very happy to see Mustafi and Luiz at the back.
Hopefully Mari is not long-term.
David luiz idiot is just a waste of space. Just a piece of fried yam. His contract should be terminated immediately. Where was sokratis chambers holding. No were to be found. It’s now that fool that u bring on. Arteta isn’t enough. Unless God and angels come down arsenal cannot succeed. It’s God himself that is supposed to coach us. I just can’t wait to see a defence of saliba and upamecano
Who cares! Bullocks! You’ve just cost us three very important points and in the same breath asking for a new contract. You sound like one on a sinister double agent role? Taking responsibility? Good, now you can leave. Thanks but no thanks says it all.
Make no mistake. This was rooted in the deal which got Luiz here in the first place. If the club want sure he could last a year then why
…. If the club wasnt sure if he could last a year then why even bother with a second year option. Chelsea are laughing they got 8m from us, when we could have took him on a season loan. Or just spent that 8m (transfer) +10m (wages) to buy out the clause for Saliba.
26m we paid for Saliba + 18m we paid for Luiz per season + minimal Monreal fee = 44m+