Wenger: Arsenal were tired in the second half but we still won convincingly

Arsenal have been playing many games recently, as John Ibrahim keeps telling us, it was their 5th match in 19 days, but for a change we have won the last two despite the tired legs. But Wenger was still happy with his players performances nonetheless. “I thought we had a very good first half. I regret that we couldn’t take our chances and after that, in the second half, we suffered a bit because Watford put us under pressure. But we dealt well with the set-pieces. After that we stuck together and could take advantage of the weak moments they had defensively. In the end it was a convincing win….”

“…. It was an open game, basically. In Milan we moved the ball very quick and today we did again, but today we lost our legs a bit in the second half. A few bad passes came in then, when we lacked a little bit of freshness in the second half.”

We may have lacked a bit of freshness, but at least we showed some cojones again! We now have to play Milan again on Thursday, and it would appear that Wenger is now making sure he will have his best players available to guarantee we get to the next round of the Europa League. The Boss said: “I made six changes. I wanted to preserve some players, like Koscielny, who has a little calf problem. With Ramsey I was cautious. Wilshere had given a lot on Thursday night, we had a very physical game on Thursday night. But I wanted absolutely to win this game and it was difficult, but overall, it gets us a little bit out of that negative spiral that we were in.

So does he think we are back on track? “Yes.” he said. “We need some more games. We had a nightmare week, so overall we still have some work to do. But we are on a good way.”

If we can get any result against Milan, then I think a bigger test of our cojones will be when we travel to leicester next Sunday. We desperately need to start getting some points away from home in the League…

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24 Comments

  1. Elneny proves once again why Coquelin was sold. I love le Coq but this season he was a different player to the one we knew. Elneny might be defensively inferior but the guy has the same engine as Kante. I think he was the only player who has a huge presence in attack and defense. MOTM for me

    1. I agree. Eleny was very good
      In the back of central midfield you need hard working players.

      Eleny has won me over because of his work ethic BUT as a bench player only. He isn’t good enough to be a regular starter for us. As you said we need someone who is very good defensively to be a regular starter.

      I don’t believe Eleny, Iwobi, Chambers, Holding, Xhaka and Welbeck are good enough to be regular starters (for us anyway). Also Mert is retiring, Koscielny is reducing in quality as he gets older. Mustafi has good and bad matches. We really need to sign a couple of solid Centre backs as well as a defensive midfielder. Also a Quality right back to challenge Bellerin. Like Kolsanic is competing with Monreal.

      This summer we need to focus on Defense

      I am happy offensively with who we have and newcomers (Aubameyang, Lacazette and Mkhitaryan). We should ideally sign another young talented attacking midfielder/winger though.

      1. kolasinac is staying because monreal is ageing and he knows he will definitely have his chance

        but for bellerin…if another quality right back is signed…he may leave

        1. Think I’d prefer an ageing Monreal to Kolasinec, I think a lot of people on this site went over the top about him. I can see now why we got him for nothing. Nowhere near the same level as Ashley Cole or Kenny Sansom.

      2. Elneny a bench player??? Are you watching the same game? He is an excellent link player, who provides incisive forward passes and is a very safe midfielder with creative ability.

        A bench player??

        He’s better than many of our established midfield players, and deserves a good run in the team.

        1. I was talking about if we got a Top defensive midfielder then bench Eleny. (I should have made that more clear sorry) Otherwise im okay giving him a shot. But to win the premier league we MUST upgrade central midfield

          Do you really think Eleny and Xhaka are good enough to help us win the Premier League?
          Eleny is fine as a starter if we want to remain somewhere between 4-6 on the Table.

          Some of our positions need upgrading if we want to win the Premier League, especially central midfield. Even Leicester needed Kante. Actually Kante was a major reason both Leicester and Chelsea won the PL. Eleny is not as good.

          If we don’t get a Top DM, then we have no choice but to start Eleny.

          I honestly believe that we can’t use Eleny, Xhaka, Iwobi as regular starters AND win the PL or CL. They aren’t good enough

          So if you don’t want to win the Premier League then I totally agree with you. Keep Eleny as a regular starter

          1. Spot on … Should sell xhaka in summer for whatever we can get … Probably the biggest overspend in clubs history … Iwobi should also be sold along with bellerin .. Maitland Niles out on loan … A new manager will be able to see through the Ramsey hype and keep him as a bench player but if he isn’t happy with that he can go too … So basically a DM and two quality defenders is a minimum in the summer but all secondary to the fossilized one leaving

    2. hard work pays…Eleney became a better player since he has experienced playing centreback

  2. Elneny is an underated player (probably because of his price tag!) and makes Xhaka better when he plays along side him. I would like to see both these players shoot more.

  3. unlike the champions league….which plays a fortnight

    Europa plays everyweek which is quite hectic….

    1. I’d love it and also Bergkamp to work with the youngsters but Wenger would never bring either of them in, it would challenge he’s authority. He will never allow anybody to do that. Just ask Bouldy

      1. Did Bouldy reveal that?

        Henry was given an opportunity to work with the youngsters and gradually be part of the setup…

        but he chose money and work as a pundit….

        Hence there is a conflict….

        unsure about Bergkamp situation….maybe he was offered or wasn’t …or maybe he just wish to stay in the Netherlands…

        Not forgetting he doesn’t like taking planes….

          1. Have you ever seen Bouldy shout at the players with any passion, I think that say’s it all.

              1. No, but I played at reasonably high level and can see by the body language, something you don’t get playing with your game boy or whatever it’s called

  4. Henry could really help Lacazette especially. They are both French and Lacazette is a talented player who needs help fitting in to the Premier League. (actually Aubameyang was born in France too. So all 3 can speak French lol). But other than language, Henry was a prolific striker in the premier league so he can give good tips and critiques to help Aubameyang and Lacazette

    I don’t think Henry can do anything for Welbeck and Iwobi. Henry was a great player NOT a miracle worker

    I think Both Henry and Bergkamp would be amazing coaches

    1. Henry could help but he should quit his pundit job if he seriously wants to help….

      no club coach or manager has ever or able to work as a pundit at the same time….

      It is real conflict of interest….

      Henry could easily sell information on club dealings easily……

      1. John, I’ve read some of your latest posts and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think you’ve ever kicked a football in your life.

  5. here we go agian , after a hapless win over win Watford who wasted all their chances given them, you now have some here saying elneny has the work engine of kante . Jesus, don’t these fans ever learn?

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