Is he having a laugh, Gooners, seriously? Does Arsene Wenger really expect any Arsenal fans to agree with his ridiculously positive and optimistic assessment of the way the Gunners have been playing this season and, more specifically, in the last two games?
Perhaps the Prof was just trying to take some of the growing pressure off the shoulders of the Arsenal players in the hope that we will get the three points tonight against West Brom that were so frustratingly elusive in the last two games which were both drawn after the Gunners got themselves into the lead.
Wenger suggested in the pre-match preview on Arsenal.com that, despite surrendering a two goal lead from a dominant first half performance at West Ham and allowing Andy Carroll the freedom of the penalty area to punish us with a quickfire hat-trick and then struggling badly to get back into the game, Arsenal were not far off producing their best.
And even though Arsenal squandered another hatful of chances before allowing a struggling Crystal Palace to peg us back again and leave us looking nervously over the shoulder at the top four chasing pack, the manager claims that his side were only missing a few percent.
Wenger said, “When the team is frustrated, they focus only on their frustration rather than what they have done well. When you have done 95 per cent of the job well and you focus on the five per cent, you forget the other 95 per cent.
“Everyone invites the [players] to focus on what doesn’t work, so we swim against the stream a little bit. We have to examine everything – it is our job to analyse it all in a very objective way.
“You have to put the disappointments into perspective and look at what you have missed. Sometimes it is one or two per cent, but the top level is about small margins and they are very important.
“We played against teams who are highly focused – against West Ham and against Crystal Palace it was a real battle.
“I cannot fault the team on the quality of their displays, but when you don’t win and the teams behind you do, it is very quick [that you can be caught].”
Pull the other one Arsene, it has got bells on it.