Arsenal boss on why it was such a ‘Game of Two Halves’

Arsenal’s edgy away win in the Premier League today was the epitome of that old saying that football is a game of two halves. Having gone in at halftime leading by two goals, with a very impressive Gunners team looking like they would only add to the tally, we were left hanging on with our fingernails as Newcastle completely dominated the second half.

In his post match interview reported by Arsenal.com the Arsenal boss admitted that his team really struggled in the second half and gave the home team due credit for their impressive efforts to get something from the game. But the Frenchman also declared that it was our own struggles after the break as much as Newcastle’s improvement that made it such a tough second half.

Our manager laid the blame squarely at our recent fixture list, with this being the fourth game in a short space of time for us, with away games in the FA cup and Champions League to deal with while our opponents had only the Premier League to worry about.

Wenger said, “We have played four games in two weeks and three away games at Manchester, in Monaco and here today, and we’ve won all three. The last 40 minutes were difficult because our legs had gone a little bit and Newcastle played very well in the second half, but we had an outstanding second half going forward. We had a fluent game by creating chance after chance and in the second half we just had to show different qualities and hang on.”

He is right in a way but that is what a big club should have to cope with and perhaps why Wenger should have taken the starin off his players by rotating the squad a little more. I’m sure that Theo Walcott would agree. But I also have to say that Newcastle were simply fantastic in the second half and that previous Arsenal teams would not have coped so well done for the fighting spirit and defending today.

The important thing is that we got through this tough test and will hopefully be fresher and ready to go after the international break

Tags Wenger

60 Comments

    1. what if you have no hat 🙁
      hold on to your nuts?
      what if you have no nuts 🙁

      theres no contingency plan in place…

  1. you,re right we should be happy with the win ,we were losing those kind of games last year,great team effort especially coquelin and ospina the guy might be a bit smaller than most GKS but he makes it up with very quick reflexes like you said a bit more rotating one player here one player there would be welcome im not talking about rotating 7 players at the time but hey 3points can,t complain!!!

  2. I wish I was little bit taller
    I wish I was a baller
    I wish I had a girl who looked good
    I would call her
    I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
    And a six four Impala

    I wish I was like six-foot-nine
    So I can get with Leoshi
    ‘Cause she don’t know me but yo she’s really fine
    You know, I see her all the time
    Everywhere I go and even in my dreams
    I can scheme a way to make her mine

          1. Dude messed up when he got serious and started making what he thought was hardcore music.

  3. Wenger has a point,we had an extremely difficult 2 weeks. We won all our games and that is very positive. Well done guys.coyg

      1. like the idea of wenger arriving to the pearly gates…still fiddling his zip rolling up on st peter like..
        .ehh open ze gates….what do u mean i don’t qualify?
        16 years champions league-thats all i do!! , zis punk is trippin!
        (i wait for zizou now…see how tough zis peter punk is soon enoughh)

  4. Why is this article so negative? 2 or 3 years ago we gave up a 4-0 lead against the Geordies.
    The guys must have been deflated from yet another “nearly” champions league KO game, and would have only got back to the UK on Wednesday.

    But still they travel top Geordie land, get a good lead, then fight and hang on to keep the 3 points. Imagine the trolling if we had drawn or lost!!

    The team – and the manager – are just concentrating on winning game-by-game. Spuds won, Saints won and who knows the Manure v Liver Birds result. But we won too, we stay close to City and set the bar for the rest.
    COYG

    1. If any bar is being set I think you’ll find it’s being done by Mourinho and Chelsea sadly…

    1. it was a good game. a drab 2nd half maybe but holding out under pressure is what I v been waiting to see for a long tym. nice one lads

  5. we switched off a bit and allowed newcastle, back into the game with a goal that gave them confidence to come at us, but we dug deep and held on! Although newcastle made it tough for us in the second half, we showed great fighting spirit to grind this one out! Lets keep it up gunners! Coyg!

  6. Wenger and Would have been called in for a sudden Board meeting. As they walk up the hallway to the Board room:

    Bould: you always get us in trouble

    Wenger: What did I do?

    Bould: Well if you would have signed a defender we would be challenging right now!!!!!

    Wenger: You say defender, I say attacking midfielder that can play on the left wing

    Bould: Dude, seriously just buy a left winger. You can’t spend your whole career improvising that position.

    They arrive in the board room

    Wenger: Yo, I love the donuts

    Law: Hiya Arsene

    Wenger: Oh it’s you……wtf

    Bould: What?

    Wenger: Where is the mother******* donuts

    Bould: *coughs and points at Dick Law*

    Wenger: Not again *Bould and Wenger sit down*

    Bould: So what’s this about?

    Law: Arsene’s transfer failings

    Bould: *bursts out laughing*

    Wenger: well your mum woesnt laughing last night

    Bould: Dude, my mum is sick right now

    Wenger: Yeah must be weight related. Your mum is so fat when she grazed her knee gravy came out.

    Law: *Bursts out laughing*

    Bould: *gets up and punches Law*

    Law: WTF?

    Wenger: dude, don’t diss his mum

    Law: WTF? You did. I just laughed

    Wenger: me and Steve are like brothers. My family know his family.

    Law: *tear rolls down eye*

    Gazidis walks in

    Wenger: Holla

    Gazidis: This is a formal environment

    Wenger: I know, that is why I decided against wearing shorts

    Gazidis: Here is the agenda

    Wenger: *looks down the list* WTF mother****er. I don’t see the jacket zip issue on here

    Gazidis: calm down

    Wenger: No!!!!!!!!!!!! It has been almost two decades!!!!! You send me out there in the freezing ****ing cold to see over these ****** and I don’t even get a jacket with a zip?

    Gazidis: I only have 5 minutes

    Wenger: yeah and what about me?

    Gazidis: What about you?

    Wenger: I want to raise an official grievance against Paula

    Gazidis: The HR lady?

    Wenger: Yeah

    Gazidis: Why?

    Wenger: Don’t you think I get a disproportionate number of disciplinaries?

    Gazidis: Don’t you think you do a disproportionate number of acts that require action?

    Wenger: Like?

    Gazidis: You stole Podolski’s phone before he left for his loan spell and carries on tweeting from it

    Wenger: dammit. Snitch

    Gazidis: Anyway….

    Wenger: OK I did steal it

    Gazidis: Why?

    Wenger: Dude seriously I don’t get on with the iPhone 6. So I stole Podolski’s IPhone 5s

    Gazidis: you are odd. What could you possibly have against the iPhone 6

    Wenger: its huuuuuuuge

    Gazidis: it is slightly bigger

    Wenger: I put it in my trouser pocket and it made it look like I was excited. I beg you, please just give me a iPhone 5s

    Gazidis: IT doesn’t support the 5s anymore

    Wenger: I can’t ****ing sign players if I don’t have a phone!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Gazidis: You have a phone bro.

    Wenger: I refuse to acknowledge the existence of the iPhone 6. So I put it back in the box and the box in the drawer.

    Gazidis: so we never signed a defender because you had a iPhone 6

    Wenger: dude it is ****ing huge. If not, can I get a Sony Z3 Compact

    Gazidis: we don’t support android

    Law: No wonder I don’t get any calls

    Bould: *hand on forehead*

    Gazidis: Dammit Arsene another meeting wasted with your grievances

      1. Why take it so serious, just for a laugh after more than 45 mins of heart pounding, is better than medicine.

  7. No coincidence that a top Arsenal run comes now we’ve actually got a DM playing for us. God bless you Coquelin, true Gooner soldier we’ve been crying out for!

    1. Well just think how much better we’d be with one who can actually contribute to our possession and passing game…

      Schneiderlin is the guy.

      1. I agree but am still unsure on a couple of things regarding MS. a) I don’t see him as a player who would do the FC role – are we suggesting he is a FC replacement or say a Ramsey replacement? Could see both FC and MS in the big games but not every week. And b) is he a big part of the reason why Soton have the best defensive record in the PL or is he looking good/better because of a properly functioning back 5 AND Wanyama playing in and around him?

  8. Arsenal must cash in on Theo Walcott he is not a 100k pound a week player,we are playing much better with him on the bench so I don’t see why he’s trying to hold us to ransom!

    1. Agree. He is also injury prone and one season wonder. He cant pass and doesnt have footballing
      brain, greedy and also no work rate.

      1. Totally agree with “we don’t need him to hold us to ransom”, sums it up for me We have Sanchez, Ox and Welbeck who can all play Theo’s position arguably even better than he can. We wouldn’t miss him but we might be able to do something with what we would get for him.

          1. What do you require of you wingers? Because Theo brings goals and assists as regular as anyone in our team.

            I’d love to know why Welbz is arguably better than Theo in that position? Because he tracks back and does more grunt work? Hardly justification. Theo has the best output capacity of any of our wingers, just ignorant to say otherwise. 15mil? Clueless

          2. Yeah great idea …. We will use welbeck as a winger over theo !

            I understand theo has missed a fair few chances since his return but he has scored a few too , what he needs is a run of 4/5 games to put right the chances he’s missed ! …. His confidence must be rock bottom having been dropped instantly , especially after missing the type of chances he did against west ham !

            On form as a right winger , I think Walcott offers more goals and more assists than welbeck and the ox , not to mention that left backs are just pinned in when he plays as people are scared to death about his pace , he’s the one player we have that is constantly playing on the shoulder of defenders , give him games and he will score goals , he’s a better finisher than he gets credit for !

  9. Whenever Wenger complains I feel like cryingfile:///C:/Users/Safal%20new/Desktop/icon_sad.gif

  10. what the he’ll did Newcastle drink at halftime(demba BA syrup? )& our player’s looked like they’ve been druged at halftime …. 🙂

  11. Happy with that hard fought win today.
    Coquelin was good again today. He has been a key part to our current squad.
    I can’t see Arteta getting back into the team. Why fix something that isn’t broken.
    No new contract for Arteta which makes me think he could we’ll be leaving.
    Makes way for Morgan Schneiderlin 🙂

    COYG!!!

  12. @Robin Vanpayslip It must have taken 10 hours to make that convesation bewtween the board.

    1. I’ve been working on that for weeks, hence the increased level of trolling

      #**** iphone6

  13. Can anyone tell me where to get emotes and how to paste it here? I tried couple of times but was
    unsuccesfull.

  14. what happened to chambers .. started so well when he joined and now the worst player.. need debuchy back asap

    1. I feel Chambers is much better player at CB or CDM. He was very good at the start of the season at CB. I dunno why Wenger played Mertesaker when he was playing well.

        1. Yes I see he is a very good passer of the ball. He lacks pace and doesnt mark wide players properly.

    2. I agree with that and moneytalks and Robin Vanpayslip below. There is a decent footballer in there – in time I think he will be a decent ball-playing CB. I reckon he is a better passer than most of our squad defenders. Wenger takes a risk playing him at RB in less difficult games (on paper anyway) in order to rest Bellerin and also I suspect as he has done in the past, play someone out of position to toughen them up for their eventual role. You are going to get exposed in one on ones more often at RB than CB – will be a doddle when he moves to CB.

  15. Have to wait for another weeks to see our gunners play so boring…..pool match will be interesting, they are in form at the moment.

  16. So Giroud has been seriously wooing me (now I don’t mean gayishly, cuz de only thing my ass can take is sh*t), his performances have been very impressive.

  17. For the love of zeus. I did miss the game today and i was about to ask abou the game how it went and how the players have performed. I am happy for Giroud and let him finish in the moment, but what in your right mind makes you people think that he is world class? Bec he scored 2 goals against Newcastle?

    Define worlclass, hahahaha. Dear Zeus have mercy with us. How was the game today people?

    1. fantastic first half, crap second.

      imagine gettin head for 45 mins while smoking blunts drinking coronas
      then for the second 45 getting punched in the eye by ivan drago bare fisted while cantona repeatedly fly kicks you

      1. And Ospina was Balboa taking all the sh*t, resqueing our asses or what? lol you are the man, man. ^^

  18. CECH/OSPINA
    BELLERIN/DEBUCHY
    SUBOTIC/GABRIEL
    KOSCIELNY/CHAMBERS
    MONREAL/GIBBS
    SCHNEIDERLIN/COQUELIN
    RAMSEY/CAZORLA
    OZIL/ROSICKY
    DE BRYNE/OX
    SANCHEZ/WELBECK
    LACAZETTE/GIROUD

  19. Sell Podolski 5m, Campbell 8m, Walcott 20m, Szczesny 10m, Wilshere 12m and Mertesaker 5m.
    Total= 60 m.
    Release- Diaby, Arteta and Flamini.= 200,000 pounds per week.
    We will have 50 m transfer fee + 60 m = 110 m.
    Schneiderlin- 25m
    Cech 10m
    Subotic-15m
    De Bryne-30m
    Lacazette-30m

  20. Wenger’s comments are spot-on but an additional factor is the ref refusing to card anyone. After several bookable offenses by Newcastle did not draw cards, the Newcastle players knew they could be extremely physical and aggressive with no consequences. So with nothing to lose in the second half against a tired team, they did exactly that. Not a single booking when there should have been 7 or 8.

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