Wenger and the mystery of the bench by DN
I don´t want to moan too much about Arsene Wenger, because Arsenal did at least win our Premier League away game at QPR last night. Add in that this was the first time Arsenal had won back to back away games in the league this season and that the team fought well and played some good football and I should have no reason to moan.
But I am going to anyway and here is my gripe, what the hell was Wenger doing with the substitutions? Having made the enforced change of Koscielny for Gabriel in the first half, the French manager then left it until the 87th minute to bring Aaron Ramsey on for Rosicky. Then he waited until the last few seconds of stoppage time to bring on Welbeck for Ozil and he may as well not have bothered by then. Was I the only one shouting for him to make changes from about the hour mark?
It was a tough and tiring game for one thing and there were fresh legs on the bench. Then once Alexis had scored our second, we had Ramsey to help keep it tight, while the Welshman also needs the playing time after coming back from injury. He helped to steady the Arsenal ship when he finally did appear but it could have been a much calmer finish if Wenger had moved earlier.
Many Arsenal fans have long criticised the manager for his late subs. Last night showed he is getting even slower if anything. We got away with it but how long before it costs Arsenal dear?