Why Wenger is To Blame for Stoke Defeat! by AT
Following the 3-2 defeat to Stoke City at the Britannia stadium, the Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger once again blamed the defeat on the Gunners’ defensive frailties, whilst also pointing out the several casualties that were unable to start the game. Arsenal’s weakened defence conceded three goals in the first half and although there was a turnaround in the latter parts of the second half, it simply wasn’t enough to save Arsene Wenger’s side from defeat.
Speaking after the game, Wenger said: “Stoke started strong and we were not decisive enough in our defensive challenges. From then on we gave them an early present and after that put a lot of energy into the game. In the second half we had good opportunities to come back and we couldn’t. Overall we put a lot of energy into this game like we always have recently and unfortunately we missed our start.
The Frenchman continued: “We were slow at the back and when we started to respond it was too late in the game. They started strong, we have to give them credit for that. We were a bit inexperienced at the back – we couldn’t play Koscielny or Monreal and we had Debuchy out as well. We were altogether maybe a bit soft to cope with what they offered us.”
Well, this certainly isn’t the first time this season that Arsenal have had to hold the defence responsible for a defeat. But in this particular instance, I really think Arsene Wenger is to be blamed fully. The fact is we were playing Stoke at the Britannia, Wenger will know better than anybody else that the Potters tend to play even dirtier than their usual standards when the Gunners come visiting. Now while I understand that the Frenchman was short of defensive options as Koscielny was not fit enough to start, our backline, especially in the first half, was not at all set up to play ‘Stoke City’.
As the January transfer window looms closer, I really hope Wenger can finally stop complaining about his scarcity of defensive options and about how his defence was not solid enough and finally do something about it. Every man and his dog knows that we are in desperate need of a defensive midfielder and a central defender and considering that there are no shortage of those in the market, Le Prof should really land quality reinforcements and stop complaining about his backline being ‘bit soft’.
Anurag
It must have taken superhuman self control on the part of Sanchez not to have punched Charlie Adams on the face. What on earth was he doing?! If I was the ref, it would have been a straight red ;(
Rules changed last year….fa can take retrospective action even if the ref ‘saw’ the event. Hope Adams gets a lengthy ban…first Giroud gets stamped on, now Sanchez gets strangled. The guys a fcukin discgrace.
@gooner100 …..with or without the chokehold, we still Lost by a mile…….. AKBs like you be crying over spilt milk while still finding a way to defend wenger and his useless tactics
Wtf, get lost twat. No spilt milk, no defence of Wenger, just commenting on a scum bag ork….you think it was ok? You’re happy fa is done about it?
Call me whatever, but u can’t deny being an AKB……. L()L
You guys are deranged. You look for reasons to be mad when they’re not there. You’re so angry and out of control you can’t tell legitimate comment from a fellow gooner (whether you’re an AKB, AOB, or like me just a fan, who is fed up with the current sh*te around Arsenal FC) from something that is somehow some thinly veiled defence of AW.
This comment was FCUK ALL to do with Wenger. This is about a thug who has previously stamped on Giroud (maybe you don’t follow the games) and took it upon himself to effectively attack Sanchez. With all due respect, I don’t attach much credence to what string of cliches Shearer manages to randomly pick from his head, but if you rate his punditry…thats your call.
You guys just fcuk everyone off. I think this site is becoming so AOB it is starting to lack viability for proper fans. Basically if we get a result a few positive gooners appear, things settle down for a couple of days, but when we lose its pretty pointless being here unless you want to be abused or go with the sheep and positively revel in more self congratulatory, repetitive, negative, divisive sh*te.
Let’s face it we’ve heard all the arguments, AOB (yawn), AKB (naive) and what I think is the majority of gooners (those like me) who are disappointed with this seasons lack of progress, the injury issues we keep having, are generally pleased with recent transfers but see very clearly we need more…….but absolutely don’t want the club to implode, be dragged into the gutter or fans to turn on each other.
Some of you are very aggressive with little rationale. You’re just haters of everything that is different to your own views. Cos I’ve had a pop at a few of you (due to your fickle trashing of the players, the team or just outrageously disrespectful and abusive comments about Wenger) you have a go at me. I’m an Arsenal fan ffs, dickhead. Have been for 30 years and regularly go to the Emirates. I love my club.
You just want an argument and can’t entertain any opinion other than your own. As far as I can tell the scrap outside the game yesterday and abuse of the Arsenal team on the coach was AOB’s. Some of you little boys are a fcuking embarrassment to Arsenal FC!
So thumb me down, miss the point of my comment, write whatever tedious, irrelevant comments you want….but as far as I am concerned it just adds to my view that many of you are simply irrational, emotive, unintelligent and abusive kids….I mean sheep. Ewe know it’s true.
we were asking for bellerin for many games, but wenger decides to bring him against saracens fc….what a donut
we all were shoutin in the window for wenger to buy a defender , two and a dm.
it isnt rocket science.
we werent asking for luxury buys- they are necessities!!
wenger ur a tit, a boobie, a breast, not a round voluptuous one your a stretch marked sagging hairy boob
@Muffdiver. What a funny description. I’m still feeling too ashamed of our performance against stoke to even make any reasonable comment. Only consolation I have is that Chelshit lost!
Chavs losing is NOT consolation. When you see a team like Maureen’s have lost before your game starts you know how massive it is to take advantage and make up te 3 points. If you do anything less its unforgivable. Trying to make up points in the league only happens if you win when the leaders lose.
What an old fart he is. Truly pathetic.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WENGER OUT!!
There is no point in stating the reasons why, because we all know them. WENGER OUT!!!
In another world wenger is riding happy in his bugatti with his tinted glass on
With a whole army of clowns behind him called the AKBs whose only motto is
“SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL”
People are making jokes about us already bec we are not united as fans. Its so emberassing.
Glad I did not stay up to 03:00 to watch the game
My heart was really broken when we were 3-0 down yesterday,
After that I watched Arsenal Fan TV to see how the fans react even more depressing.
The trend of Arsenal Fan reacted like this based on my observation (IN ORDER):
1-2 Lost vs MU: Wenger Out, We played well, Some positive here some positive there.
2-0 Win vs VERY Weak BvB: We played well, Sanchez was massive
1-0 Close Win vs WBA: Arsene is the best manager for Arsenal, Sanchez was beast
1-0 BARELY Win vs Southampton: Arsene is the best manager in the world, Sanchez was GOD
3-2 Lost vs STOKE: Wenger Out, We played well, Sanchez hit the post
Rinse and repeat
I AM TIRED OF THIS BULLSHIT KEEP POSITIVE KEEP POSITIVE, WE HAVE PROBLEM IN THE WHOLE CLUB FOR GOD SAKE
LWWWL
Stop talking and writing posts and Acts . Make a move and act. All the board members except Uzmanof are afraid of change . But change brings about success whether in the short or long run
Yes because he sold vermaelen sagna and loaned out jenkinson. In return he brought just chambers. He knew koscielny and Gibbs are injury prone and they play 3 matches and get injured for next 2. He knew mertesacker is slow and wont cope with pacey strikers. Now come to the dmf who protects your shaky back 4. Dmf is even more shaky than the defense. Arteta and flamini even together are less than what matic is for Chelsea or wanyama to Southampton. Result= can’t beat any big teams and think the team is world beater after defeating burnley Sunderland palace.
people who are asking for wengers head seem to have forgotten that half of or starting xi is out injured….just imagine where city or chelsea would have been without kompany or cahill
m8, i think you forgot we have 2-3 weeks August transfer window to reinforce our devensife problem, and wenger brought Wellbeck
bro i dont think city would’ve paid 40 mil or cpsg would’ve paid 50 mil for luiz if there were any defenders out there…..the problem is that top class cb are very rare
zzzzz…wenger has got in your mind with that bs
plenty of cb out there. we have a huge scouting network around the world.
wasnt everyone saying there are no dm’s available last january?
chelsea buy matic- game over
stop believing this bs arsene is feeding u
name me one other quaity cb who was transferred who is better than chambers
by the way matic played for chelsea when he was younger
do you take my word that i could make a list with players or not?
no bro i dont
And if i kill my time in making that list would this change something at your thinking?
yes i realise that, which makes it worse cos they sold him , rejection hardly makes u want to go back does it?
cb names?
matthias ginter
federico fazio
toby alderweild
i could name more…..
cut it out there are no more excuses
i’ve seen ginter a couple of times but i dont think he is better than chambers…
Benatia
Manolas
Garay
Papadopoulos
Astori
And why are we talking about players better than Chambers? We should be talking about who are better than Mertesacker or Monreal (as a CB). For that list I can give 10 more names.
Benatia, Mangala and I could keep going …….
guy,
1. I am not asking for 50 mil ++ defender
I believe we CAN get at least above average defender for our CB backup
2. Luiz is a joke, better go similar player like Godin (and not also 50 mil)
3. Are you Arsenal fan or Wenger fan?
what makes you think that an average defender could have done a better job than chambers yesterday…
Bec Logic tells us that Chambers has not been used as a Cb but mainly on the Rb poz. The fat that he is also very young and not proven tells us also that its not smart to to use him. Red card proved it, Stock scoring 3 goals prove it aswell
well everyone has an off day he was rock solid for us in a lot of games….ginter was poor against us as well,we cant precisely say that buying an average defender would’ve saved us yesterday
This is not about an off day. The same will happen again. And i will be here around looking for you.
ksgunner, bro i am looking forward to that day
Chambers main position is RB, NOT a CB
still he is a lot better than some cbs
m8, i beg you see the bigger picture
do you think we have another CB AND RB available at this moment?
we will lose more points bcos lack of depth in defensive department.
and you say “to hell with squad depth?”
Which means: we lack of CB
Which means: we need to bring a backup CB in August
What really happen: We bought a Wellbeck (with 19 mil wtf)
What really happen: Monreal played as CB
What really happen: Monreal injured
What really happen: Chambers played as CB, BELLERIN as RB
What really happen: Chambers red card
What will happen: We have no defender left
Do you see my logic here? This is why we need to bring defender in August.
But apparently for Wenger: “F ur logic m8, i know the best lel, I buy striker even though I do not give loan to Campbell”
bro just imagine city without komany,zabaleta.toure.navas and nasri its not the same city side. i agree tat we are short on cbs but we have 2 quality players in every other position…we are just unuckythat we are getting this many injuries…if not re with the big boys
this what you say “unlucky” has been going on for 9 years!
you know why? Cos City has SQUAD DEPTH TO ROTATE their players so they are not getting injured so often!
for us? WE HAVE NO SQUAD DEPTH IN A LONG TIME,
I still remember we only have koscielny, gallas at one point.
Gallas injured, boom dead, again 2010, again 2011, again……. 2014.
I would say to you GGun, get your facts around this 10 years straight!
I am not gloom and doom fan because we lost 1 match, I OBSERVE THE F PROBLEM in 10 YEARS. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. And your GOD, Wenger, didnt do much to change it!
If you think you are a good fan, GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON WHY WE HAVE TO KEEP WENGER.
Dont give me bullshit about our finance stuff, NOW we are doing well financially. What we are seeing now is FUTURE TROPHY not financial stability anymore.
@GGun…….. Please swallow 3 sachets of anti brainswashed capsules….. U’ve got Wengeritic syndrome
so are you saying that we should replace him in the middle of the season
yes, so the player can adapt about 6 months with the new manager.
maybe we will drop to 5-10 position,
but it is a sacrifice to be made rather than spending another 9 years in 4th position
do you know a place which sell them
@ GGUN let me give you a good advise buddy, from one ARSENAL fan to another, it’s a dangerous time to be an AKB most of your mates are hiding have not heard from them since yesterday….no point in making a point, Le Prof is beyond defense and for those of us that want a better ARSENAL it’s time that we make him accountable as Usmanov did….
Couldn’t put blame how we’re in this state cuz some injury on our important player…
This injury stuff have been happening around wenger’s days but why our team got worse every season..?? There’re something wrong how they do trainning or the method… Seem like our manager fail to fix this each year…
The sad truth is that Wenger’s stubbornness has caused him to become the problem and not the solution at Arsenal. He’s too intelligent not to see we needed to strengthen the cb and cdm positions, yet he refused to do it and we are seeing the consequences. He should be held accountable for such glaring incompetence not rewarded with £8 million a year. its an obscene waste of money for a man whose ego is dragging the club backwards when its his job to do the opposite.
He calls our defence “SOFT” …….Hell yea Mertesacker = forever the SOFTEST,
Chambers = kinda SOFT,
Gibbs = SOFT Last night,
Bellerin = prematurely SOFT …..
But i don’t recall being the one to buy SOFT and/or play SOFT….. Shame on you Wenger!
I’ll take crouch to replace mert any day… Taller & a little bit more pacey than mert… LOL..
No longer mad or angry at Wenger nor with £8m salary I feel sorry for him….just wish he sees the light and disappears quietly over the horizon at the end of the season!
It’s quite simple really, sell Podolski or Campbell to Southampton in Jan in return for Schneiderlin. Can be an almost swop deal!!! Then get a CB and we will have vastly improved the defence. Maybe Alderwierld who can be versatile. RB as well as CB!!??
Just watched goals on Sunday to see the highlights again ,
Mert got slated for his waful defending, he turned his back on two of the goals,
Wenger is ruining the once grate club, we won’t finish top 4
The guy won’t change and he’s ruining his own reputation but I’m sure the 8 mil will soften the blow.
And as for Diaby he needs to hold wengers hand as he leaves
Hmm… Let’s see who’s the one put this softie back against bull… wonder..?!
Oh my God.. the injury excuse again. EVERYBODY is laughing at those Arsenal fans who always come up with that excuse. Talking about denial.
Fact is, it is not bad luck. Bad luck doesn’t continue for 7 straight years. Man United has had bad luck with injuries this season, but they didn’t have last year or if did, surely didn’t have it 2 years ago.
Guess what, our “bad luck” with injuries means exactly one thing: Arsenal training staff aren’t doing their job right. There’s something seriously wrong with the teams training methods or preparations or the physics of the players.
We bought a new physio and it seems his purpose is not to prevent injuries but to make players return back earlier from the injuries. We are dealing with consequances but not with reasons.
Naturally you would have thought that Peter crouch will be mertesacker‘s easiest attacking opponent to play against, (bcos they are both tall and slow) but where was mertesacker when crouch was jumping above four arsenal players…. I won’t blame chambers for the goals conceded… i will blame our makeshift captain mertesacker because as usual when there’s no kolscielny, per will be lost as seen many times this season.
Wenger is sh*t, the blame is on him. he should take some lessons from mourinho. chelsea barely loose players to injury.its because of the way chelshit train nd recover after matches.Wenger is busy using acient training methods and he is complaining about injuries. Our defence is soft because of him. if u give our squad to mourinho, he will win the treble with it. And rosicky should be playing. #WENGER OUT.
Sell Podolski where????????? It’s just unfortunate Wenger can’t use him well,,, that guy can bang goals n trust me S’ton will be a step down fo him….
For me it was not softness that cost us the game. Tactically and defensively we are so poor!
We are supposed to playing 4-2-3-1 but our shape is often 4-1-1-1-3 that’s if the full backs are not forward. Ramsey is everywhere but sitting next to Arteta or Flamini. As for Carzola he is not filtering back into defence.
Two of Stoke goals came from poor tactical play. The 1st goal, Nzonzi runs into the space behind Gibbs, no midfielder tracks the run. This is where Flamini or Ramsey must pick up their man. He has time an space to pick out the cross.
The second goal Bojan playing behind Crouch runs into space behind Mertersacker. Mertersacker is in the wrong place and is not aware of the strikers movement. Absolutely his fault.
The third goal we lost a header in an one to one situation. This can happen no major blame.
Wenger must address this but seem absolutely oblivious to the problems. Its not toughness that stops these goals. Its tactical awareness and organisation. Two key areas we are missing from Wenger.
I don’t consider myself an AKB and over the last couple of seasons have started to believe we need a new manager (preferably at the end of the season) to take us forward.
However, just to put the defensive situation into perspective. Lets assume Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City were hit by identical injuries to the following personnel:
– 1st choice striker
– 1st choice playmaker / #10
– 1st choice winger
– 1st choice centre-back
– 1st choice right-back
– 1st choice defensive mid-fielder
– 1st & 2nd choice goalkeepers
We would end up playing:
Welbeck, Sanchez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Ramsey, Flamini, Gibbs, Monreal, Mertesacker, Chambers, Martinez.
On the bench we would have: Podolski, Rosicky, Campbell, Wilshere, Sanogo, Diaby & Gnabry
Chelsea:
Drogba, Willian, Schurrle, Fabregas, Mikel, Ramires, Felipe, Zouma, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Schwarzer.
On the bench: Salah, Remy, Ake, Christensen & Baker
One injury to any of the available defenders and they’d be in exactly the same boat we have been in for the majority of the season and they have even fewer options on the bench.
Manchester City:
Dzeko, Nasri, Milner, Lampard, Yahya Toure, Fernando, Kolarov, Mangala, Demichelis, Sagna, Wright.
On the bench: Sinclair, Clichy, Nastastic, Jovetic, Boyata.
Conclusion: Manchester City’s and Chelsea’s squads really do not have that much more quality than us and with the same amount of injuries to defensive players, Chelsea would be in the exact same situation we are in and Manchester City would be relying on error-prone CBs Mangala & Demichelis.
As much as the squad was crying out for more defensive cover before the window closed, the bigger problem is our injury record / problem and our mentality – though i’m pretty sure Chelsea and Manchester City would have dropped a few more points if they had to play the line ups above over a run of a few games.
Also interesting: On physioroom right now, Arsenal have 9 players listed as injured. Chelsea have 1. Nathan Ake.
Gibbs and mert were the most abysmal two out there. Since when is it alright to just allow crosses, didnt even learn from the first goal they go and watch it a second time.
Yesterdays hurt brought me back to last seasons early kickoffs.
When we had our team of warriors in PV4, Silva, Sol, King, Lauren etc etc i am now starting to wonder if it was lucky on Wengers part that they were fighters leaders, maybe Wenger bought them for there ball playing skills and that was his reasoning alone. How can a manager who achieved so much early on just abandon the type of individuals who brought him so much success..
Wenger has resorted to blaming the players. These players are the players he bought so who to blame. I think Wenger has gone soft and can’t hack it any more. Sorry but time for him to move on and let some fresh blood take over.
OK Wenger is the boss, but I don’t think he is the first one to blame.
What were the odds that both Kos and Debuchy would suffer lenghty injuries in the same time?
In these circumtances, who should take responsibility to lead the young players? MERTESACKER! He’s the most experienced defender and the vice-captain for god’s sake!
Instead, he is slow. He is always at the wrong place. He’s sometimes jogging when a sprint is required. But most of all, he should lead the defence, help his young teamates. Where the f… was he when Stoke scored? Isn’t he supposed to be CB ?
And how about his passes ? I would say 50% are to his goalkeeper, 30% to the other center back and the remaining 20% …. are so unsecure you ask yourselff “WTF is he doing ?”
He let the team and Wenger down. He’s the one to blame.
Well Mr Wenger, the same old comments and excuses seem to be coming out regarding how we defended. Now, forgive me if i’m wrong but isn’t this the same problem we had before our run of 3 unbeaten games? Those results merely papered over the cracks, but so many of the AKB’s were singing his praises and saying we’d turned a corner. Well I hate to break it to you but this result was on the cards, and similar results will be on the cards all season. And who is to blame?!
The board? Well partly. They will happily sit there and keep quiet. They won’t push Wenger to spend money because they all have deep pockets and mightily short arms.
Wenger? YES! He is the manager, he knows (or at least he should) what his teams weaknesses are. He could have brought in more cover once Vermaelen was sold but didn’t. He seems to live in the past when it comes to what players cost. What he has done this season is suicide. But so long as fourth looks on the cards the AKB’s will be happy with their mediocrity and the board will be laughing all the way to the bank. Wenger also knows what to expect by now when it comes to playing Stoke, yet tactically he got it wrong AGAIN.
All too often i hear the AKB’s saying we shouldn’t just expect success and we should remember the past, and we only expect success because Wenger brought so much early on. Erm………..yes that’s why I expect more! Otherwise we could have saved £400 million and stayed at Highbury. Why build a bigger better stadium and field a worse team each week? THAT’S WHY WE BUILT A NEW STADIUM! To be bigger and better and compete with the elite of Europe. But Wenger and the Board and the AKB’s seems to have forgotten that. In my eyes I we’ve all been lied to. The early years of Emirates were always going to be tough. A new home, a financial crash of unprecedented scale really took it’s toll and Wenger did well to keep us up there. But we are in a position where we are one of the best run clubs in the world. We have money in the bank, and board that want’s to take us for a ride and a load of AKB’s that seem happy to pay for the ride.
I look forward to Big Gun’s (Arsene Wenger) comments on this!