Arsenal and Leicester ended up as a bore-draw today and after the exciting end-to-end defeat to Liverpool last week this was a total anti-climax. So it is little wonder that the media were more interested in talking about the lack of action in the transfer window rather than the lucky point gained by the Gunners.
But Wenger did talk about the game, and he thought it was a well earned point for Arsenal. “We gave absolutely everything to win the game. It was a game of high intensity, where both teams gave absolutely everything,” he said.
“On that front, after we conceded four goals last week we have shown a great defensive performance.
“Overall we created the chances to win it but you could see that they were not champions for no reason last season. They are a team who are very organised and it’s very difficult to create chances.”
As for the benefit of having LKscielny back, he was happy with a clean sheet. “I thought that the whole back four played well and he guided the defence very well,”
Having said that, many pundits thought that Mark Clattenburg should have given the Champions (I still can’t get my head round saying that!) a penalty, but Wenger thinks that Leicester often play for a spot-kick chance. “I’m like you, in life it is very difficult to know. You have to watch it in slow motion to see what’s happened,” (regarding Koscielny’s tackle on Drinkwater.)
“Maybe [Musa should have had a penalty], again it was on the other side [of the pitch] but Leicester is very good at provoking in the box. They got many penalties last year.
“So you never know, is it really a penalty or not?”
So on to the bit that annoyed Wenger, when the media started asking him if he was actually not very keen on spending money in the transfer window. Wenger said: “Why do you say I’m reluctant [to spend]? I don’t understand that. If I buy a player for £45m, I have done well, if I listen to you, but spending money in itself is not a quality.
“I would spend £300m on a player – if I had £300m. We are a club with 600 employees who we need to have a responsible attitude [towards] as well.
“It is surprising that you come out of football games and you don’t speak about football games, you have to speak about money. If we find players who can strengthen our team then we are not reluctant to spend the money.”
To be honest Arsene, there wasn’t really much football to talk about, but the fact is that every Arsenal fan knows that without a new striker we have little chance of the title this season, but according to him, the protests from the travelling fans are simply because they are being led by the media rather than making their own mind up. Wenger said: “They are highly influenced by the media. That’s part of the process today but we try to make the right decisions. It is as simple as that. There is a whole team working on strengthening the team and I am not the only one.
“Nobody speaks about the performance of Rob Holding today – he is English, he is 20 years old, you should be happy. But I am sorry he didn’t cost £55m so it cannot be good.
“That is, for me, what is most disappointing – we don’t speak about the performances of the players anymore. We just speak about anything else but football and I believe it is not right.”
Arsene all I can say is “give us a striker” and we will stop talking about transfers. And secondly “give us some classy football” and we will start talking about the performance….
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