Before Saturday’s game against Middlesbrough, Arsenal were on a scintillating winning run which culminated in the 6-0 thrashing of Ludogorets last Wednesday, but although Le Prof made a few changes for that ECL Group Match, our manager believes that it was a game too far for his tiring squad.
“We’ve lost games like that,” Wenger said. “We are in a position where we’ve come out of [seven] straight wins. We didn’t win but before we maybe would’ve panicked a bit and lost the game.”
The boss doesn’t believe his team were overconfident or complacent, just little bit lacking in energy compared to our opponents. “I don’t feel that is the case in training, that the players become complacent.” he continued. “Sometimes you’re a bit jaded physically, but we had to dig deep to get things going.
“Unfortunately when you play against teams like Middlesbrough, they watch the Champions League games on television and they are ready physically for the weekend. It’s not easy.”
The boss then must surely make many changes for our League Cup match against Reading tomorrow, so as to give our tired stars a chance to recover for the next League game at Sunderland next weekend, although our manager is keen for us to get back to winning ways against the Championship side. That’s our target,” he told Arsenal.com. “We have a game on Tuesday night so let’s come back to winning habits straight away. It’s [about] how you deal with disappointment and how you bounce back and I believe that the group is strong enough.
“We lost the first game here against Liverpool and after that we bounced back in a very strong way so that’s what we want to do again.”
“We had 75 per cent possession but we couldn’t finish enough our combination play,” he added. “We lacked a bit of speed and freshness in what we started, and at the end of the day it was a frustrating nil-nil.
“At least we were intelligent enough not to lose it though, because in the first half we were under threat a few times. At the end of the day we got the point, it is not enough, of course, but it is still a point.”
The interesting thing is that Tottenham, Man City also dropped points which has now left it extremely close at the top, with us, Liverpool and Chelsea making five clubs all clustered at the top with just one point separating us all.
This season is getting very interesting, but is it so important for our reserves to beat Reading tomorrow?
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Yes we must win, even with reserves, or we will start to look vulnerable again. We are lucky that the other big teams have been drawn against each other and may have to field stronger sides if they want to progress, whereas we could probably change all eleven and still win.
This game is perfect for the return of Giroud! He could do with a goal to give him abit of confidence.
The middlesbrough game is exactly why we cant rely on key players only. We need Elneny, Gibbs, Monreal, Perez to click when we need them, Cazorla int he starting line up every game is not possible.
We need to have balance play times, hopefully we get to see more second strings players on the reading game
Any one watched the horrendous tackle ” David luiz ” only cautioned yet xaka gets 3 match ban I don’t get it
Sorry? Xhaka got three match ban?
It was not all about tiring squad. This game described about how important Santi Cazorla and Granit Xhaka for us. Without any deep lying play maker against heavy defensive team we can’t quicken the ball faster enough after transition. We were pushed to play from the flank, but if you don’t have lethal “aerial weapon” like Giroud then those crossing were wasted.
So I’m glad to have at less Xhaka for next EPL fixtures. This will be a different story, I’m sure.
OT: Lucky for us ManCity also held draw. Liverpool and ManCity, I feel, is gonna be our two most top rivals this season.
Let Perez play and if he performs then he should play against Sunderland. Sanchez as a ST doesn’t work against every team and the Sunderland game will probably be similar to Burnley and Boro.
Martinez;Jenkinson,Holding,Gabriel,Gibbs; Elneny,Coquelin; Ox,Iwobi,Akpom ; Perez
Akpom is injured, iwobi has been playing all the time and with coquelin needed for Sunderland, I would leave all 3 out. Instead play giroud, zelalem (or ramsey if fit) and maitland-niles,