There have been thousands of words of criticism, from pundits and Arsenal fans alike, blaming last weekend’s defeat to Chelsea on Per Mertesacker for getting himself sent off in the 20th minute, but Arsene Wenger has come out in defence of the Big Flippin German saying that he has also been Arsenal saviour in the past, but he does agree it was a mistake by the experienced defender.
“Ideally I don’t want anyone to make a mistake but that is part of defending and we were caught on the counter-attack and in a bad position,” Le Prof said. “It is easy to look and explain on the screen during the game or after it, and anybody that understands football can explain that. But when you are down there on the pitch, if you are caught a fraction out of position it is impossible to correct. That is what happens and I have to accept and live with it.
“We forget the amount of times Mertesacker saves a goal from going in and that happens. The risk is part of the game and you have to feel comfortable with that. Mistakes are part of that competition but we learn from defeat.
“We have learned from the performance on the day and we had great spirit, a great team attitude and a response but we came out of a game which we have not played. We were down to 10 men and 1-0 down so it was very difficult.”
It is easy to blame one man, and everyone seems to think that Per is too slow for the Premiership nowadays, but the fact is that everyone makes mistakes sometimes and it is perhaps unfair to judge a man on one performance. The important thing is that Per (and the team and fans) get over it and pick themselves up for the next game.
As Wenger often says; Do the judging at the end of the season….
if you look at the move that led to the red card, everyone was caught out of position high up the pitch. n koss actualy plays costa onside, so i agree with you ,lets not blame per entirely
We will get caught like that from time to time. Mert’s lack of speed is a poor match for our style of play.
I’m tired of Wenger excuses and “reasons why”…Wenger-the father’s figure…For him everybody is just perfect…so what is the reason for losing so many games lately?Just be a man at least once and say the truth we all see-BFG is a snail and is the main(only reason) for losing the last game.Or is Wenger trying to cover his own mistake for this panic buy?Waiting for him to praise Arteta and Flamini soon.And don’t forget your protegees-Walcott and Ramsey…
Blame wenger for having no balls and no axe!
I’m not blaming Mertesacker, I’m blaming the manager for relying on certain players and tactics that allow our midfield to constantly expose Mertesacker whenever the opposition counter attack. It’s the same bloody mistake in every defeat or game where we haven’t won. We attack, we make the wrong pass, the opponent counters, we concede. The constant repetition of mistakes would never happen if we had Coquelin in the team and an adequate back up.
I bet mert returns from a self inflicted ban straight into the starting line-up again….huh wenger!
Gabriel starts for Arsenal against Bournemouth does excellently and get his 1st and only goal ….. Next match he’s dropped for no reason
how do we justify all of that??
This is what causes the favoured players to start feeling secured for their place and they start taking things for granted. In contrast, the new players even when they produce good displays don’t get rewarded and are left confused and short of confidence.
The same way u justify wenger for starting giroud instead of walcott at CF… Then walcott misses sitters when he is given the CF role to play
I don’t understand why people hate Per so much. Apart from the chelsea red card, he has always been superb – calm and composed. Although he lacks pace, there has never been an occasion where we conceded goals because he was beaten for pace. he rarely makes mistakes. in fact I challenge all the Metersacker haters to each name one occasion where arsenal conceded a goal because of a Metersacker mistake this season.
Actually, i dn’t blame Mert
I blame the goaL post for being too wide and far back from where he’s stationed
Hahahaha…..i even heard that not even him (per) handing over the captain arm band to walcott before the match made him fast enough to dash back and dispossess costa..
“And you don’t win with kids any more unfortunately against the Championship teams”. Old Age finally doing something good to Wenger’s wisdom.
Haven’t we already moved on, from the Chelsea defeat?
You Talk about letting it go, but these articles keep on bringing it back up again! .. wtf! ??
I’m just gutted that Meatysucker only got a one match ban
????
It’s like a bee sting, the pain may fade away but the memory will always remain
Okay… Since we’re on this subject,
At least Mertesacker was being inventive with his no look tackle! ?
It’s just a shame that the only person that he fooled, was himself! ??
all that was needed was pace and a Light shove with the shoulders…….. It coulda been nothing worse than a yellow technically…… And he even isn’t good at slide tackling
Arsenal fans are hypocrites. We criticise Wenger for having favourites, but I don’t c many gooners having a go at koscielny for being caught out of position. He’s been poor recently and performance-wise, if u want Gabriel in, take out him, not the BFG. I no he’s quite similar to kos, so in terms of tactics, it might not b a good idea
Why does Arsenal have to be the team that gets caught in the bad position and lose players to injury for 2 weeks extended to 6 months and why opponents get away with cheats,bad refereeing decisions along with surviving near leg breaks like Matic but Arsenal make one wrong step everyone else jumps to pull the leg and get what they want.
sad to say ds but Wenger need to b more ruthless for us to win d league.
i said b4 d Chelsea game dt Flamini nd Mert r like to hand brakes in a game against William costa oscar nd fabregas.
but Wenger plays d two.
dt as just got me thinking we ll not win d epl ds season bcos of ds selection flaws.
hopefully ds three match ban will gv Gab more game time enough to perfect his pairing wt Kos.
hopefully Wenger wont change it
Arsenal has got us arguing amongst ourselves, AGAIN!
Couple of injuries to other teams star players could or should work in our favour. Unless of course our dreaded injury record strikes again.
Still,no excuses today. Only an enthatic win is the order of the day.
Not sure u heard that right……. Isn’t it a one match ban??
And that isn’t even enough time for gabriel to do a bellerin
cuz it will be like after the bournemouth game where the snail takes the place of the Hare
Mert’s lack of speed has exposed us before it was inevitably going to cost us a game eventually. Blame Wenger for not starting Gabriel.
There is too much talk about the individual players. Our problem lies in the defensive organization as a whole. Our midfield players are not drilled and disciplined enough to press the opponents quickly and constantly. They allow too much time on the ball, and allow opponents to turn and run at our defense. This creates a pressure on our defense, that no individual player can handle every time. Until this problem is solved, forget any idea about getting better defenders to solve our problems.
I can’t believe that everyone seems to forget all the half cleared passes PM r does and all the nervous clearances and balls that put team mates under pressure. He is not composed and is unable to beat a player and run out of defense with a ball like Kos . Then play a good pass. So Kos is nowhere near the liability Per is ! He bottles it to. for a big guy he doesn’t have the aggression to match. Turns away from shots instead of putting his body on the line.
Bottom line he’s not good enough! . Arsene needs to get rid of now.
keeps giving it’s not just his pace he’s not good enough to in the team and it’s more than just 1 performance.
From my own point of view, I won’t blame Mert. it was flamini who supposed to have closed the ball before Mert got caught.