Arsene Wenger says Arsenal must take every opportunity to put Manchester City on the back foot when the two teams face each other at Wembley in this evening’s FA Cup semi-final.
Having drawn 2-2 at the Emirates against Pep Guardiola’s side earlier this month the boss is expecting a close game and warned his side that they’ll have to be alert at the back to suppress the Citizens’ considerable array of attacking talent.
“It is a match between two Premier League teams who are very close to each other in the table, so that means it’s very open and certainly you will be a bit more on your toes mentally,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.
“You need to be absolutely at your best. Sometimes the pressure from being super-favourite comes from the fact that you’re a bit scared of taking the initiative.
“You play a little bit with the handbrake on, but in this situation we know that City are a very offensive team so we will need to defend well as a unit. We need to take every single chance to go forward and put them under pressure.”
Preparing for his 11th semi-final in the competition, the boss also touched on the importance of breaking the deadlock first.
“It’s very difficult to predict [how the match will pan out] because it depends certainly on when the first goal will be scored. That always decides the attitude of the two teams. It should be a very intense game, we want to prepare well and absolutely give everything on Sunday.”
and lose, lose, lose.
Get a hobby.
I think being a miserable troll IS his hobby.
Oh well, hope he enjoys his own Kompany.
Nice to hear Richard’s anus speak.
Thus spake the oracle that is Richard’s Anus and it uttered forebodings of terrible things to come.
And the oracle that goes by the name of Richard’s Anus spoke bollocks!
When Sp*rs lost yesterday, I wasn’t sure if I felt happy that they cant do the double now or worried that will face Chelsea in the final (granted we get through)
I was happy that despite apparently having their best team for 50 years, they still can’t win a trophy. Hahahahaha.
I thought they played well whereas Chelsea were pretty shit. IMO the Spuds deserved to win but Chelsea were able to capitalise on the opportunities they were given plus they were jammy. And shit reffing as usual. And so it goes.
Let’s make something of this today! COYG!
How can a manager so obsessed with mentality create such psychologically brittle teams? Mentality, mentality, mentality. Soft goals, lack of concentration, no leaders, massive capitulation, player strops, no passion, hands on hips, no longterm loyalty. How can he still say this stuff with a straight face?
Hmm very well put. 100% agree!
Absolutely… Attack, attack, attack only works if, unlike Arsenal, you”ve got a squad of players who all, repeat all, work hard & tirelessly to press & close down the opposition to win the ball back and actually do something with it when they’ve done so.
Doesn’t hurt to have defenders who can defend as well.
Just want to see 100% team effort, it’s a semi final anything less just isn’t good enough.
Wouldn’t we all!
Want to see that in every game. Might win something then.
Delivered 110%. Man am I fucking happy.
Sounds like a recipe for a total disaster!
Arsene playing the mind games game.
If the team has a bit of ticker about them tonight they can win this game. But show up with that poor care factor of recent games and it could get ugly. Atleast Spurs didnt win…. getting sick of all these spuds thinking thier club are now the darlings of North London. Bastards.
It would be good to see some of the hot air from the manager (& players) converted into improved performance on the pitch.To be honest most fans don’t give a monkeys what is said, all they want to see is players giving their all on the pitch and looking like they have an idea about what they are supposed to be doing – both attack & defend!!
Wenger doesn’t say attack attack attack in the article so why the misleading headline?
Arseblog is Fake News!
Clickbait, and look at the other commenters jumping on the headline.
attack!!! attack!! attack!! we all know how this is gonna end :p
We scored the first goal against City in December and lost, is he hoping they score first this time so we’ll win?
Arsene’s logic confuses me.
We rarely defend well, the way we’re playing it’s just a bonus if we win, I have no positive expections with this group of players under this manager and owner.
please leave your wenger in/out wankfest for today. we are playing a semi-final today we sing for arsenal. your smug attitude is unwanted. if wenger plays three and we lose you will moan about going experimental in an important game. if he plays four and we lose you will again moan that why change it when we won last game? we win you will moan that chelsea will kill us in final. or why did we not show this sooner. if you have no faith in us you are of no help. your personal opinions on the manager are irrelevant… Read more »
And here you are having a moan about the moaners.
Rather moan about the moaners than incessantly moan about the club, especially today.
Watching some old vids from last couple of years. Forgot how much I liked podolski’s song. Thing we need someone to take that on, Koscielny perhaps??
Pre game talk sounds like what he normally says before every big game against a big team.
He even through in the old “handbrake” for the complete bingo.
I think it will be better to defend for the first 20 mins and see how the game is going. If we attack straight away they will hit us on the counter and score.
They scored after like 5 mins last time we played they have a lot of pace with Navas,Sterling and Sane we will play in to there hands.
A message to the players: Give it everything you have got. Fight for everything. Never give up. And walk away from todays game proud.
A message to the fans attending: Always be behind the boys, sing your loudest, and most importantly do not show yourselves up and be like the Spurs fans leaving with 10 minutes to go.
sounds awfully like his 1000th game in charge….we all know how that ended
Defense, defense, defense!
hahaha….some people are such losers. Where’s the spirit? Where’s the fight? If the team possess the sort of mentality as some of our fans, we would never win things. The FA cup is OUR cup. When the ball hit the woodwork twice for City, you had the feeling it was ordained that we would at least get another shot at the 13th title and a record in the competition and for Arsene. We have NEVER been big in europe. We have ALWAYS been a massive FA cup pedigree and potentially the best ever. COYG! No double for CHelski. Cup is… Read more »
Some people (pundits namely) are going to harp on about how well Spurs played. Well its pointless playing well and not winning the game. Its pointless out passing your opponent (unless you are into ‘statistics’) and losing. City are going to moan on about their ‘disallowed goal” bc the lines man called it out of bounds. Get on with it I say. You still had plenty of time to score against us. Aguero had a penalty denied? So did Alexis and Giroud never gets any. Man up. We beat a team with Sane, Silva, Sterling, Aguero and our defense held… Read more »
well said santori! cup is ours!!! fuck chelsea!!and cunte…
Lets celebrate with our most successful manager ever, God bless Arsene Wenger
Get off the great mans back you pricks, how Spurs would love to be in cup final, wewill probably overhaul them in the league as well, dont worry they will have their usual melt down he he