Arsene Wenger saw his Arsenal team get over-run by Liverpool this evening, but it was obvious to all Gooners that he had taken a massive risk by leaving our best player (and the League’s top scorer) on the bench in the hope of disrupting Jurgen Klopp’s plans.
This was a spectacular failure as Arsenal were already 2-0 down before Sanchez was finally sent on to replace Francis Coquelin, and despite his best efforts it was too much of a deficit to come back from. At least Wenger was man enough to admit that it was a mistake. Wenger told BT Sport: “Yes (it did backfire), but I felt that in the first half that the strikers suffered because we didn’t dominate in the midfield and in the second half you could see that it was easier because Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud were much better. So it’s always debatable.
“It took us a while to get into the game. We were not completely at the races in the first half and we conceded cheap goals and direct goals from their goalkeeper.
“We had opportunities to come back in the second half and responded well but it’s true, we didn’t perform to our level (in the first half).”
It sounds like Wenger has finally given up on winning the title but despite being leapfrogged by Liverpool today, he hasn’t given up on still finishing in the Top Four yet. “It is a possibility that we can still make it, so let’s focus on that.”
To be honest, the Top Four is our focus every year so I don’t really see what has changed this season. The only difference is it looks like Wenger may really struggle to actually make his goal this time around!
Darren N