A great game was played yesterday although the result was not in Arsenal’s favour, and the most annoying thing was that the Arsenal defence allowed Andy Carroll to be completely dominant in our penalty area. Arsene Wenger does not think that we were just unlucky that Carroll was on top form, but rather that our defence has been weak at dealing with these situations all season.
Wenger said about Carroll after the game: “First of all because he is good in the air. We lost a bit of urgency when we were 2-0 up after 43 minutes. We had a good game today but a bad result. We played with a weakness that is redundant in the season. If you look at the goals we have conceded since the start of the season, [most of them] are headers in our box. That happened today.”
Wenger feels that Carroll should have had a second yellow before scoring his third, but doesn’t think that excuses our defence. “Yes, of course. [I felt] he is lucky to finish the game. Yes. But that does not mean we have to concede headers if he stays on the pitch. We have to look at ourselves and we cannot influence the decision of the referee.”
Many fans also thought that perhaps Petr Cech would have been the better choice to deal with the crosses, but Wenger thinks that it would have made no difference. “The thinking [behind choosing Ospina] was that he has had some outstanding performances. With Petr Cech or David Ospina, we have exactly the same problem in the air. We didn’t concede in the last two games. Since the beginning of the season, we have had exactly the same problem, no matter who plays.”
So is Wenger saying the real reason we have lost out on the title this season is simply because the Arsenal defence can’t deal with headers in the box?