Arsenal finally lost their unbeaten run at the 20th time of asking, but at least is was in the League Cup with most of our top players rested, so it should not negatively knock their confidence for the Premier League games.
But, overall, Wenger believes that the team he picked should have played much better and they should have been good enough to win at home last night. After the game it seemed that the only word he could use to describe the game was ‘disappointing’!
He said: “It’s not only a disappointing night because we are out, but it’s a disappointing night because the performance was disappointing. I question our urgency level, our focus from the start on. It was not good enough and we paid for that. Overall, I think that is the most disappointing. It can happen that you go out of the competition, but our first 45 minutes were just not good enough and not at the level of required concentration. In the second half we responded well, but overall for me, that’s the most disappointing.
“That what we did there was not Arsenal. It’s not the way you can stay in the competition and that we want a different response. I think it was there, but overall it’s a disappointing night and I must say, Southampton deserved to qualify and well done to them. They were ready from the start on and we were not.
“It is a learning experience but it’s still disappointing. People will say I made many, many changes. But look at the names of the players who were on the pitch tonight. We had plenty of Premier League games on the pitch.
“Yes, I felt we had a squad that could win it. We had the luck to play at home. It’s disappointing to have a crowd like we have, you can give them some satisfaction in this competition as well and the way we started the game, I think it’s disappointing.
“I don’t think I can moan about the momentum in the Premier League, that is important for us. I knew that in the League Cup that could happen, but it’s disappointing to lose the game more than the run we have. The run we want to keep in the Premier League, but I am very disappointed tonight because there are questions on important things. You know, when you turn up in the first 45 minutes we played.”
So as he managed to fit 11 ‘disappointing’s into his after game speech, I think we can safely say he was VERY disappointed!
What was the most disappointing thing for you?