The former Arsenal and England international star Ian Wright has had some criticism for Arsene Wenger in the past, but he was quick to stand up for the Frenchman today as he commented on the FA cup exit at the hands of Watford.
Wright was full of praise for the Hornets, their game plan and the way they executed it but when it was put to him that the result would put increased pressure on the Arsenal boss he was not having any of it. As the former striker pointed out, Wenger had actually treated the tie and the visiting team with respect and named a strong Arsenal starting line up, with Ozil, Alexis, Giroud, Coquelin, Campbell, Mertesacker and Gabriel.
The problem, according to Wright, was that too many of our players did not give it the full go. The slow tempo of our play in particular was picked up by the pundit and it was very noticeable how much quicker we passed the ball around once the second Watford goal went in. And the defending for their opener was downright awful, while Gabriel was lucky not to be sent off for a reckless tackle.
There was not too much more Wenger could have done and he did react to the problem by making a triple change which nearly paid off in the dying minutes. I am sure there will be plenty of Arsenal fans ready to hammer the boss over this loss, but I for one think that would be unfair. How about you?
Really? Then who has been picking the first team eleven along? The tooth fairy?
he bought these players. he trained them.he works with them round the clock . its his team 100 percent
but he works with the restrictions kroenke has set.
aswell as his own ideologies.
we r buggered
When’s that Nigerian bloke supposed to be buying us out?
Iwobi is only on 5k a week
so be a while before he
has the 500 mil deposit 🙂
Yes take the blame and let the mediocrty status carry on….would Pep Klopp Conti or even Mo accept this crap from the players?
Just saw the Welbeck miss at 89th minute. The fault lies at Gibbs, what a s*tty pass that was.
Wenger wants the boys to go all out and do the impossible at the UCL
.
SUICIDAL!
.
PLs i beg of u….don’t send these average boys to an earLy grave
Wenger’s intermittent press excuses brings bucket Loads of Tears to the eyes of passionate Arsenal fans the world over
please sir….. LEAVE ARSENAL THIS NIGHT….. Just goooo
TitLe Article ratings:
0/10 (ExtremeLy poor)
Gabriel totally sucked vs ighalo. Ospina missed a ball right above his head. These players??????
This manager and his blind faith in children ……..
Oh Jesus! Wenger’s after match conference is cancerous. Dude is on a whole new level of delusion. Absolutely shocking. The whole world can see it. But the couple who are in charge are f***kin blind!
Nah man, those are the calm words of a man who will earn 8 million a year regardless what happens with the team.
Yes but calm also because
its the EPL which is the
real aim this season.
Wenger will be just as calm
before and after the Barca game, no one expects Arsenal to win.
If we lose to Everton then may be he will show some concern.
Sure plays a mean pinball though ?
Absolutely disappointed with the defending today! We missed “kos” dearly!
There’s a reason for that. It all goes back to the way the club is run…
Last year Vermaelen left, we didn’t buy a replacement because the club was too cheap to buy one. They didn’t get away with it because Koscielny got injured and were forced to buy in January.. But what happened? We went shopping at Poundland. Gabriel looks decent, don’t get me wrong, but he was very much a ‘that will do’ signing and not a signing to actual improve our starting 11.
You see the exact same thing this summer. We all knew we needed a defensive midfielder… What happened? The club refused to buy one because again, they’re too cheap. Coquelin got injured, the club was forced to buy in January, and yet again, they shop at Poundland. Does Elneny improve our starting 11? Nope. Again, a ‘that will do’ signing at minimum expense to keep the fans ‘happy’.
If that is how the club is run, then Wenger should STAND UP for the club he has represented for 20 years. But he says nothing, he is part of the problem no doubt. Not once, EVER, have I seen him take the blame for a loss. Never ever has he admitted if he made a selection or substitution mistake.
I’m sorry, but isn’t it the manager’s job to come up with tactics suitable for our next opponents, isn’t also Wenger’s job to motivate the players, to pick the right players and to be able to react tactically in a game. Yes the players have been poor as well, but again, who decides to hang on to deadwood season after season, hoping they’ll suddenly become world class!
It isn’t the players fault, because what we all saw today, we’ve been seeing for years, but with different players. Lots of players have come and gone, and nothing has changed, so what does that tell us…what hasn’t changed! THE MANAGER!!!!!!! Here’s a crazy idea…why not change the manager!
i’d say…………change this manager……… New manager changes this team (sells and keep who he wants)….
New manager comes with his own tactics (probably heavy metal attacking football)…. New expectations….new results…
I ain’t afraid to take that GambLe!…..
new manager gets ‘reminded’ of the restrictions we have at this club.
new manager wont be enough
“If the soldiers lack discipline, the fault is with their commander”
– Tywin Lannister
i think we should sign tywin as our new manager up
Tywin would be a good choice, great tactician, lost lots of battles but won the war. only problem is that he was killed by his son Tyrion.
@muff………c’mon muff, we don’t need to spend 200mil……we only need to get whome we need(original or cheaper replica) and start playing Like the foxes, hammers and sadly the spuds (can’t believe i said the spuds)
Having 4 home ties v
Sunderland Burnley Hull
and Watford is as easy
as it gets so going to a
replay v Hull and losing at home
to mid table Watford is some what surprising.
But I guess its all money in the bank and the loss
may yet work in our favour with less games to play.
We expect to go out to Barca at our usual last 16 stage so
again Arsenal will achieve the accepted pass rate from
75% of the fans and of course Owner, Board and CEO.
We can still win the weakest EPL on record starting with a win
at Everton who’s focus may have shifted to the FA Cup.
Westham’s replay may be scheduled the week we play them.
So we could win both those difficult away games.
On the other hand with Spurs winning today that will keep
them believing and the Foxes with the Spurs win will now
be even more motivated to win tomorrow v Newcastle.
After City drew they may be fighting for 4th place
so we can expect no favours when we go there
in the penultimate game of the season.
So although it looks bleak we can still win the EPL
starting with a resounding win at Everton.
Where there’s life there is hope 🙂 🙂 🙂
Lets be optimistic, who knows we may win the PL.
However four wins in the last fourteen games and two of those wins were against championship sides. That does not suggest a push for the title is realistic. More likely we will fall further behind.
I’m lost in all this, we’re out ! At home to WATFORD ! FFS Watford, yes I know there are no easy games against EPL teams, but Watford ? A glorified championship club, it’s unthinkable. Everyone @ Arsenal Football club hang your heads in shame and donate this weeks wages to cancer research, then at least you can say you’ve done something good.
Move over Freddie Krueger because Gabriel’s defending is truly “a nightmare at Ashburton grove”!
The Wenger brigade is certainly present on the site to defend him! But for how long?
Why do we embrace mediocrity as a club? I’m still lost for words! Shameful!
cos the model makes money . it doesnt require winning titles or europe.
in that sense its working very well.
Exactly.
If you are an advocate of the
EPL 4th place last 16 ECL
financially sustainable model
you will no doubt be thrilled with the season thus far.
Who cares about trophies when we can
celebrate financial targets being met.
This is why Wenger is so calm in his interviews and able
to say that he does not understand fans who want trophies
when financial success is staring them in the face.
“I am not God you know, although I make more
money than God does for this club”
This is not a problem that started today but rather has been around for the last decade.To start with,everyone knew we would fall short at the secound half of the season for lack of enough depth in quality and the outcome now isn’t surprising to most pple especially our rivals…wenger himself said we had enough quality to challenge in all front and even went further to say there were no players out there who cld improve us.i have said many times that half of this squad is average and cannot achieve much.with klopp,mou,conte/simeone and pep around nxt season then lets see how this blemish ‘Angel’ of our is gonna fair out.Nxt season will even get worse.for arsenal the phrase is ‘IT’S DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN’!!!
wenger and players to blame, not all, but they played like it was a friendly until down by 2, if you are a professional, cashing 100K per week, put it all out every time you are on the pitch… why were they able to turn it up and score w 5 minutes left?
btw, i am fine w players mistakes, but not playing 100% is not acceptable,
This is the reason why Arsene has to go and a Simeone type is needed to start the rebuilding stage of Arsenal FC. The Wenger blueprint, a casual style of conceding possession and unwillingness to press the opposition reinforces a passive mentality in the squad, a reluctance to do the dirty work and dominate the opposition. A disciplinarian, capable of organizing and implementing a competent system would happily give walking papers to the Walcotts and Ramsey’s of the world that consistently freelance to the detriment of the team, or a certain 6′ 10 CB that refuses to jump and win a simple header resulting in the game winning goal.
Arsenal is currently broken and Wenger doesn’t possess the capacity to change anything, especially the necessary shift in mentality of the club.
100% agree, simeone would be great
Please don’t. Forget Big V, white men can’t jump lol
Ol blade of grass BFG…unreal he’s a starting CB in the EPL, let alone @ Arsenal.
Became glaringly obvious to me today that Arsenal has far to many first team holes that even a City or Manure spending spree would be unable to address.
2 CB
DM
Striker
Winger
Desperate times @ the Emirates
Who bought the players? Who selected them? Who blind not to see a striker in the market? When your neighbour bought dogs and you bought puppies, expect some harassments in your compound.
puppies r very cute tho
Mertz couldn’t start in the MLS, he is either directly or indirectly the reason we give up most of our goals. You start with him you start a man down. How he’s a starter blows my mind!
Mertesacker was not even close to being the main reason why we lost today.
It really is time to wake up I’m afraid. We have great footballers, but we don’t have a great team. There is no heart to our team at all. No characters, nothing. Just a bunch of players that really could still be living with their mums – there’s no grown men in that team.
What I think hurts us fans most is that we know that nothing is happening in that changing room. There’s no nutters like Tony Adams, Roy Keane, Vincent Kompany or Patrick Vieira tearing into that team for their shocking performances. Honestly, can anyone here picture anything but silence in the Arsenal dressing room after a defeat? All I can imagine is them say there feeling sorry for themselves.
Great teams have strong characters, and that’s no coincidence. To be a great team, you need strong characters. We don’t have strong characters, and we’re not a great team.
We get it Ian, Le Prof is beyond reproach and criticism and the players he trains and selects on a weekly basis should bear the responsibility of disappointing loss after loss after loss. Perhaps it his stubborn, arrogant message to the first teamers that results in there half ass performances year after year after year.
Will a Tony Adams, Vierra, Martin Keown or TH please grab your sacks and admit that it’s time for your beloved leader to do what’s best for Arsenal FC and move the F on.
just arsenal are only f…..ing with the fans, bec they know whats up, but choose to exploid the situation by starting some pointles s….t up.
just notice from now how many post will be posted about wenger being a legend and how fans own him his loyality and trust. bla bla
yikes glad i missed game now bloody hell.
everyones fumin even my german neighbour an he only started supportin arsenal 4 years back
Not a pretty picture Muff, but the S***t show @ the Emirates must and will go on.
Maybe you’ll get an invite to Kroenke’s new American ranch when throws a huge house warming party @ Arsenals fans expense
Lol
Was erlaubt sich Arsene mit Arsenal? Die spielen ja so scheisse das ich kotzen muss, und dieser nachbar muff, der soll sich einfach tot stellen oder sich einfach aus dem fenster werfen!!!! haahha
muff, scared
Google translate
“What Arsene allowed
with Arsenal ?
The play indeed so shit
I have to throw up ,
and this muff neighbor,
which is expected to make just dead
or just throw out the window “!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
common guys how can you blame wenger for this??? the genius is actually systematically letting others win so that we can de-congest our upcoming fixture list for epl and can solely focus on coming 4th…errrr winning the league…..
i wenger we rust… sorry trust
As long as Stan Kroenke owns our club, we will never be able to compete with any of the worlds top teams and ALWAYS struggle to win domestic cups. Look at what he said at a recent sports conference in the states: h.ttp://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/stan-kroenke-i-didnt-buy-arsenal-stake-to-win-trophies-a3202046.html. (Take the dot out of http)
We can criticize Wenger all we want, bottom line is whoever takes over from Wenger will have exactly the same financial restraints. There is just NO CHANCE we will ever be able to compete with the likes of Barca, Madrid, Bayern, PSG, City and eventually Chelsea and United when they find decent managers. Bottom line is this – GET USED TO NOT WINNING ANYTHING FOR ANOTHER COUPLE OF DECADES – because Kroenke has turned our club into nothing more than a cash cow.
Yes, but arsene is the last wall who keeps the board from the fans save, or am i mistaken, big gun?
The drama what comes with arsena is not that we cant compete, but its that we choose not to. Wenger needs to go so fans can focus on the main matter of concerne, which is the board. wenger is part of this and as a manager and first places on this chain, he needs to fall first.
@ Big-gun……… Listen up……u can’t keep coming up with the excuse of the board being the problem alone in this team….
.
.
If leicester carries this league, will u Come out and say it was down to the money given to ranieri by the board?
We all concede Kroenke and his merry cast of flunkies are systematically destroying the club we all cherish and the Arsenal business model will never compete with the true European Super Clubs but there is an ever growing consensus, perhaps even a majority opinion amongst Gunner fans, and EPL pundits that this should be Wenger’s last season. With today’s FA Cup embarrassment, a CL exit surely looming mid week and a miracle run in needed to win the EPL, why would the Arsenal brass be confident in there $8M a year Savior.
With the recent form of West Ham, City’s ability to turn it on down the stretch there is no guarantee the Gunners will raise the coveted Wenger Trophy. If no Champions League chedda for next season why would the Yank sign off on another $8M a year s***t show from Wenger?
Lets be honest, the players are at fault BUT Wenger is responsible for the defeat. Frankly, Welbeck missing a sitter was not Wengers fault. The problem we have is with defense, Wenger’s philosophy does not revolve around defense, Watfords two goals were defensive errors, BALL WATCHING and defending with no purpose. The philosophy has warped the players into not clearing their lines but always trying to play their way out of danger. The fact that Per still gets into the team amazes me, the fact that Wenger has not brought in world class defenders has me pulling my hair out. This summer, after finishing 4th…Wenger will go out and buy an attacking midfielder that we dont need and BAM we are title contenders. At the end of the day, its not about the owners, whatever resources they provide Wenger with, he goes and pickles it because of his philosophy. If we are ever going to win anything serious, we need to defend better, against barca we could of just held out for the 0-0 and went to Nou Camp for a all out gamble…Remember that night in madrid, HENRY…we defended superbly over two legs. Now we cant even defend against Watford…
Different era, different team BenBrad7 what this current team lack is the guts, determination, and sheer pride married with that never give in attitude that every Arsenal fan expects of every player to pull that famous shirt over their head.
I wish the league could end in decembr..because we could hav been champions for atleast 3 times since 2004
The substitutions could have come much earlier. Welbeck should have started the game as well. We mustn’t be deceived by Giroud’s 2 goals against Hull – he shouldn’t be starting for a club the size of Arsenal.
Welbeck pace and movement unsettled the the Watfords run of the mill defence straight away….the shifter only puts in a shift….no pace no dribble no movement NO GOALS…he is prime example of everything wrong at Arsenal.
Give a minimum of 40mil to a half decent manager and u’d be surprised to see how much quality he could get with that
.
Seriously, how much does the likes of Mahrez, kante, payet, Arnatouvic, shaqiri etc cost?….and they are all hungry for success!
.
This whole excuses of the board won’t release enough fund to spend is getting Lame….even if wenger is given all the money in this world, u can still bet on him to screw -up and go all out for crocked and unproven players
.
Satan, gazid*ck and Wonga OUT!
So it 4th Place that’s all there is on the Menu for Arsenal. Mr Wenger and the Board will be Happy with that. The Fan’s or should I say the Customers can suck eggs as far as Wenger and the Board are concerned. So Suck it up Guy’s and keep taken the Meds.
Mr Wenger has NO CUP to hide behind this season.
@ muff…..may i ask what restrictions u mean ere?
.
Moneywise?
.
Does it include not Lifting major trophies?
Whatever that is, Wenger enjoys it
L()L
I dont care who is Arsenal manager next season as long as its not Wenger.
AM REALLY FED UP***×***
Our manager doesn’t APPOLOGIZE to arsenal fans…
All he does is defend defeats.. Aaaaaarrrrh
Right silly article again, blame the players but not the manager…. tactics were horrible, no change until past the 68th minute??? We were more dangerous when Sanchez moved to the right….leaving the donkey striker on till it was too late and again subbing Campbell to put on his favorite Walcott who is an embarrassment in an already embarrassing team. Sell the pr..k
Gabriel didn’t defend? Are you kidding? 2 defenders go for the same ball which meant we were exposed and a 6ft 7? piece of c..p couldn’t even get off the ground to head the ball out/away. My bad… actually a piece of c..p can’t get off the ground. For the second, almost every other defender would have thrown himself at the ball but what does our piece of c..p do? turn away again…NO BOTTLE. Who have we on the bench as our defence? that’s right don’t need any so we only spent money on a keeper.
No tactical sense,against any team who parks the bus, lets just play square across them until we find an opening..not? When other teams press high and we get away, wait or pass it side to side till the opponent gets back into their defensive position.
Looking at games, felt Chambers was better at Center back or midfield but what position does he play? right back and was caught out of position many times. I don’t fault Elneny because it’s only his 2nd start but under the manager’s instructions to be sure was to just square the balls instead of driving forward. We know Giroud the donkey isn’t very good and this would have been the ideal game for a Welbeck start then the donkey’s substitution but nooooo, he comes on only when our manager only decides to chase the game with 22 minis left.
Who is our leader our leader on the field? Viera or Tones would have been on the ref’s back as early as the 8th min when you could see the Watford keeper was trying to waste time
Oh yes more accomplishments under Wenger. Plays teams/players back into form. Gets them to break their own records, Olympiakos, Dinamo, West Ham and so on this season. Watfords first goal came from a player who had not scored since Jan AND only against a championship side. Arsenal have lost three successive home games in all competitions for the first time since November 2002. The Hornets earned their first win against Arsenal since April 1988.
It has been good but (singing Sarah Brightman) TIME TO SAY GOODBYE
I couldn’t give a damn if we qualify for CL or not, we’re never going to win it with the current Board, Manager or players, all we do is make up the numbers.
Kroenke has confirmed what we already knew, that he doesn’t care about winning trophies, all he is interested is building a brand that earns him money, this view point has trickled down through the club to the manager and seemingly a lot of the players.
I’m sick of watching the same s**t every time they take to the field, slow passing, no sense of urgency, giving the ball away, letting the opposition take the ball, the players look like they’re in a training game for 90% of each match.
We don’t have one stand out player, last year it was Sanchez, but this year he’s been pretty damned awful, even I could defend against him, he’s so predictable, receive ball, cut inside, try to pass too many players, lose possession.
Everyone at the club seems too friendly, too cosy, why aren’t they balling each other out, organising themselves defensively, moving the ball quicker, using the pace we have up front, I’ll tell you why, because there is no consequence for their failure, just a manager who gives the same old sound bites about mental strength, blah, blah blah. They’re too busy giving it large on social media and taking bloody selfies rather than putting in a shift on the pitch, believe me, I know, I’ve been to every game this season except the Hull replay, I’ve sold my 3 tickets for the Camp Nou to one of the Directors at work, he doesn’t support Arsenal but wants experience the atmosphere, I couldn’t be bothered to go quite frankly.
I don’t think I’m going to renew my 3 season tickets this year, I can’t bring my self to pay nearly £4500 to line the pockets of Kroenke et all, plus the way games, travel costs, hotels for some games, it’s just not worth it anymore, very sad after being a season ticket holder for 30+ years, but I’m so disillusioned and angry with the whole thing that’s the way I feel.
I’ll always support Arsenal, just not financially anymore.
If we have the right player we shouldn’t have any problem in not winning a trophy. This year is suppose to be our year but due to the non-spending of Wenger, he cost us downfall. We should start preparing for next season by signing players that will help us, players that are hungry. Some players will need to go like, per,rosicky, arteta, flamini, giroud, walcot,debuchy and sanogo.
Then try and bring in like Mahrez, isco, gozte, prolific strikers.