Wenger – Arsenal lost their legs in the second half….

As usual, Arsenal fans had to suffer right up to the last kick of the game before securing all three points from rock bottom Leicester last night, and Arsene Wenger believes that the team was still tired from the intense North London derby on Saturday.

Le Prof said on Arsenal.com “It was close towards the end but it is always like that when it’s 2-1. I feel that we were in control for the first half but when we were in control they had one or two good chances on the counter-attack.

“In the second half we lost our cohesion, our technical superiority and Leicester was always dangerous going forward. They are very quick in transition from defence into attack. At 2-1 we became a bit nervous but overall what was important for us was to get the three points.

“Saturday’s game was a bit in their head, especially in the second half in the legs. Tottenham lost in the last minute as well. It was a very intense game on Saturday and three days later, it’s not easy.”

I can’t help but point out that Leicester also had a tough relegation battle with Crystal Palace on Saturday as well, but they seemed much more lively than us in the second half. Perhaps it didn’t help that Mike Jones seemed to favour the away side, but Wenger refused to put the blame on the referee. “Yes. I didn’t agree with all the decisions but I don’t think it was a violent game. It was a fair game. Leicester fight not to go down and when you see the way they play football, you are surprised they’re not bottom of the league and they want to get rid of their manager.

“If they keep quiet, don’t panic and stick together they will get out of that. For me they are one of the better sides we have played at the bottom of the league.”

Okay so it wasn’t a great day at the office, but we have moved back above Tottenham and into Fourth, so let’s just be happy with that and try and recover for Sunday’s FA Cup defence aganst Middlesbrough on Sunday…..

Tags Leicester Mike Jones Wenger

17 Comments

  1. “We were in control in the first half”? Were we?

    I think AW is seeing an alternative game from another dimension..as I don’t call Leicester having the better/more chances to score being in control.

    I cannot watch his post match reports anymore..its too sad to watch.

    #lostThePlot

    1. The (7) and counting who thumbed down. Care to share your thoughts on how we were in control in the first half?

      Na thought not.

      1. I didn’t thumb you down but I felt we were in control in the first half. I say so because we were cohesive and our passes were accurate. We may not have created many chances, but at least we were in control of our nerves. Leicester may have had more clear cut chances but we made ours count, hence the 2-0 lead at half time. We were a totally different team in the second half. It seemed as if tired, hung -over aliens had taken over the players’ bodies. From far away in Africa where i watched the match on TV, i could smell the nervousness in the air. Second half was just torture.

    2. 2b honest we were poor and the worst part of it is wenger seeing us perform poorly and he doesn’t do a thing.
      The next match he shouldn’t be on the bench even

  2. I thought we were shocking- and our 2 goals were highly flattering to us. We prob scored with our first shot on target- and whilst you have to applaud a side that doesn’t get many chances but makes the most of them-

    I thought we were very poor in defence, the bottom side in the league carved us over many times, it was only their lack of finishing that made us look better than we were. Any top-half team would have converted those chances into 4 goals against us-

    And this against probably our best defensive lineup-

    We dodged a bullet on this game- hope we play a lot better in the remaining games of the season – We need to!

  3. they deserved the win, but we took it – the difference…
    we took our few chances, they only took one of many.
    cant deny we were outplayed at home by the bottom of the league.

    1. WE deserved the win because we took our chances even when we didn’t create too many. they DON’T deserve the win because they didn’t take the many chances they created.

  4. To me, the worst issue yesterday night was the amount of bad passes in the middle of the pitch. It is exactly a problem of focusing, of being in the game. The team was not in the game especially in the second half. Also, on the final third we had real synchronization issues on the last pass. Personally I’d say that Giroud did made a difference when he came in. Wonder why didn’t we played like that (probably because Alexis needed some game time as well).
    Well, got the needed three points, let’s move on to Boro.

  5. We looked mid table material in both our last games. We have no toughness in our game.Snchez has it but he’s on his own.I Our Fb’s and MFs are lightweight and apart from Sanchez our forwards are just pussys. We won’t be able to mount a challenge for the league until our type of player includes steel with skill.

    1. I beg to differ on Monreal. He is actually the most pleasant surprise for me this season. Right now I wouldn’t trade him for any FB’s we have. Bellerin is young and he does have an excuse.

  6. The crazy ramblings of a tired and delusional has-been … Makes for a funny character in a mike Leigh movie but no longer a laughing matter for AFC …..

  7. @ArseOverTit

    I completely agree with you. Last nights game was yet another example, not that we need any more, of how bad we’ve become under Wenger. Even though it was a win, it was another massive struggle to get past a very poor team at home! Plenty more warning signs for the much tougher tests ahead: Chelsea, Man U, Monaco, etc.

    Most of our league wins have come against poor/average sides, and hardly any of them have been convincing, despite having some top players in our squad. This is why we rarely beat decent opposition any more.

    1. Glad I’m not alone in this mad world where many seem to think all is dandy and that questioning substandard management and performance is not permitted.

      COYG!

  8. Let’s reserve our comments,Can any team play well everyday,no.But its good that a team can scrap results even on its bad day.That’s the reason the likes of Manure and Chelsea have been getting an edge in the title race in recent years and we have many times complained about playing beautifully and failing to get a result, what matters is the 3pts,of course the performance was far from convincing but the fact that we won, the team have to move on and look forward to improving in the next game. At this point of the season, relegation battlers are tougher than mid table teams, they are playing for their lives.

  9. At this time of the season when some teams are fighting not to be relegated don’t be suprised to see a bottom side dominating a top four/title contender side

  10. We were in control in first half. 2 goals and clean sheet, but we relaxed in 2nd half. We had a very attack minded team, which I liked.

    To be fair, Alexis wasn’t at top form even before the injury. Giroud scores goals but he and Welbeck are unpredictable. At home we should have won by a bigger margin or at least clean sheet to the bottom team, but you must give Leicester credit.

    Honestly, it’s not something to be down about. At least it is a win. Now we have FA Cup.
    FA Cup will be tougher so don’t expect a blow out. We MUST concentrate on a Win. FA Cup is the most realistic chance of a trophy. A loss would pretty much guarantee a crappy season.

    We can use a win against Middlesbrough as a spring board to start a string of wins. We can still have a good season.

  11. What is it that use to make the Gunners get tired so soon after playing a game 2 or 3 days back? Tiredness is a big problem the boss and Gunners must identify the cause and put a stop to it for goods. This tiredness makes the Gunners to loss their composure and thereafter loss their cohesion and ultimately loss the control of the game. And become vunerable to the onslaught of the opponent assaults which can result to them caving-in and concede goals. It is not only injury that is the Gunners problem. But tiredness has been playing a big part in the Gunners shortcoming to win the Barclays Premeir League all the years. The League is just past halfway mark. And the Gunners are already getting tired with playing their games and struggling to beat even a bottom rock Leicester team at the Emirates stadium. No wonder the Gunners threw away the League title last season using injuries to some Gunners as a cover for the failure. Whereas it was more of theire uncomprehenable tiredness issue of the Gunners that was the actual reason for their failings to win the title.

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