After our brilliant run of recent form it was a great shock to see Arsenal throw away a 1-0 lead against our great rivals Tottenham yesterday, especially as we hadn’t previously conceded a goal since New Years Day.
It seems Arsene Wenger was just as shocked and he has publicly chastised the Gunners defence for allowing Harry Kane the space to score twice and give all three points to Spurs. “It’s very disappointing because we started very well and then thought too much about defending, and not enough enough about playing,” the manager told the Arsenal website.
“I felt we made too many technical mistakes in the middle of the park, and lost balls that are very unusual for us. On top of that, we gave two cheap goals away and that explains the defeat.
“The corners on the deflection, we could have had the ball and then on the second post we leave them completely free. On the second goal, I felt that we left them completely free to cross the ball and then had nobody in position.
“Before that, we could have won the ball in the middle of the park and if we had won it, we could have gone through. But we didn’t really go for the ball and after that, Kane had a completely free header in the box.
“With five minutes to go, that’s difficult to understand with the experience we have at the back. I’m disappointed by the quality of our football and it was just not good enough.”
I am surprised that Arsene has slated the players so much in public as he usually prefers to reserve his criticism for the dressing room. If he is this angry in front of the media, I dread to imagine what he said to the players after the game. If this is a new facet of Arsene’s policy then I certainly hope it works and that the players respond strongly against Leicester on Tuesday night……