Wenger – We lost our heads but Arsenal are on a good run

Arsenal are preparing to face Everton today and Wenger is at pains to be as positive as possible after our disappointing Champions League defeat and reminds us all that there is still another game to play to turn it around. “All the circumstances went against us against Monaco,” Arsène Wenger told the official Arsenal website. “We lost our heads a little bit when things went against us. We lost patience too quickly, we lost security too quickly and we lost discipline too quickly.

“When things go wrong everybody wants to put it right but then you lose the team discipline. We knew before the game that this was a tie which lasts 180 minutes and if it goes wrong in a part of it, you still have to keep your discipline and that’s where it went wrong.

“We will analyse it in an objective way and respond as a team. The only way for success is to respond to disappointment as a team, work for each other and fight for each other in the next game. We are not out of it – people forget that. We have to play well in the next game.”

But first of all we have to regain our composure against Everton, and no-one likes to be reminded that we have not won any of our last five meeting with the Toffees. Le Prof is not expecting an easy game today. “There’s no obvious reason why Everton have struggled in the Premier League,” Wenger said. “They have a similar personnel and they were in a strong position last season until four or five games before the end.

“They are a team who has quality, who play good football and are a threat to everybody. They lost 1-0 at Chelsea but they could as well have won the game.”

Wenger also believes that (overall) his team has been in fine form recently and intends to continue that trend. “We are on a good run and on the night everything went against us,” he continued. “Were we responsible for it? Certainly for a part of it but I believe overall the good run has to be dominant and we have come back in a great position in the league and we want to stabilise that position.

“We know that our home form in the league will be very important to decide that. Let’s take this opportunity to make our position even stronger.”

A (god forbid!) defeat, or even a draw, will still leave us behind Man United in the table, so it is unthinkable that we won’t get all three points today. Get out there and chew those Toffees.