Last night Arsenal lost their first away game (in the League) for nine months, and it must be said that the team looked listless compared to some other performances this season. So it was interesting to hear what the Boss had to say after the game.
Both Everton goals came from headers, and Wenger was not happy about the performance of Mark Clattenberg, especially when he gave away the corner that led to the winning goal. “Of course, it was not a corner – you see it from outside that it was not a corner.” Wenger ranted. “But I think we have to live with the wrong decision and it doesn’t explain why we do not head the ball after you know. But I am really disappointed because Clattenburg was in a really good position to see that they headed the ball on and it’s not the first time we are unlucky with this decision this season. Overall, I do not want to speak about the referee too much, it’s not my problem.”
Le prof was then asked if his team let thimselves be bullied after taking the lead, and he replied: “No, I think we have to look at ourselves. We lost the game because I feel we started well and after that maybe we lost a bit of urgency because we were a bit too comfortable and then Everton made it very physical.
“Overall, I believe that from then on it disturbed our game and we created less flow going forward. In the end, we unfortunately didn’t take our chances or two. We didn’t create too many but we had clear-cut chances in the game that we didn’t take. After that you can be caught away from home on a corner like that.
“We have been nine months unbeaten away from home so you have to take that a little bit with a distance as well. You can lose football games, especially in an atmosphere like that and especially as well when you play so many games. We played five of the six games away from home, we had to play the Champions League on Tuesday, we had a difficult game on Saturday. We have to come here straight away again on Tuesday, I think Champions League teams have a little bit of a more difficult schedule.”
I am inclined to agree that the team was tired, but the question must be asked why Wenger did not rotate his big talented squad to make sure that their were fresh legs on the pitch. We did it last week and it worked well, so I am at a loss as to why Wenger played exactly the same team, except for starting Bellerin, that played against Stoke at the weekend. It makes no sense to me at all.
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Excuses excuses. Referee was spot on IMO. Fatigue is irrelevant since every team will on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.
Besides, wasn’t it not long ago when Wenger said how much he has quality on the bench? If that’s true, then why were there zero changes on the team that played Stoke few days ago?
We lost because of poor finishing and lapses of concentration, in addition to not rotating the team with few fresh legs.
Giroud shuold play against City, he’s got a good record against them.
Unlike most I do not agree with the tiredness factor. The main reason is because we have compared to the past 2 seasons a deeper squad than ever with the additions of Mustafi, Xhaka & Lucas. The second reason is that some players are having thus far career seasons (Ox, Walcott).
So yes Cazorla is missing and he could’ve been part of the rotation in a hectic schedule and help us control the game as well as provide another creative outlet same for Ramsey who could’ve provided something different from Coquelin who could’ve seen red several times in that game (even if he is one of our top performers thus far). But Wenger for it’s most part has rotated and rested players. They should’ve been fresh! What i agree on is the lack of urgency & Ozil should’ve done better when he put that ball over the bar…it would’ve killed the tie and if not we would’ve just control the flow of the game.
Now we need to stop this from being a streak and get a W against City this is crucial! Feels already like one of those games of the season!!
Gabriel Abrue Paulista (GAP) was the gap and weakest exploited by Everton tester night.
Honestly, I can see the reason we can’t win league this season. Lack of consistency in top performances.
I have tapes of The Invincibles that I watch at home. You score them at 85′ you are still not secured victory-wise. We are still far from that level and EPL trophy.
Perez has two great qualities…..he is a lethal striker with a wicked left foot and an assist master as well, check his record. I still maintained Wenger should have started him ahead of Walcot in this game. Walcot scored on Saturday and you would expect Perez starting would be motivated to do likewise and he is technically better than Walcot. Baines wouldn’t have had all that position playing against Perez and immediately he came on he won a red card for us because he is an expert in his movement behind defenders, though the red card came late. Thats the kind of player Perez is, he is unpredictable. Wenger don’t kill his spirit like you did to Campbell.
BOO HOO Everton wanted the game more than Arsensl did. It looked like a case of Men V Boys.
The Ref had a good game as for the Arsenal players being Tired if earned the kind of money they do Tiredness would not come into it I would run my Heart out. It looked like Arsenal had just come from their Christmas Party and were all had a hangover. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Why is it that Wenger can’t get the better of Koeman and Pochettino?
First Southampton, then Tottenham and now it will be Everton who we regularly struggle against. These two managers make one thing count against Arsenal only, fitness. With that they make Arsenal hurry when in possession.
Wenger said yesterday that we put in a good fight? If that was a good fight, then there is no chance of the title, and give up, I did already in start of November. I still support the team in every game but it’s looking like a repeat. I’ll be honest I even said Arsenal would win yesterday against out of form side (2-0) but we didn’t put in a decent performance. Stekelenburg has made a lot of mistakes this season and yet we only tested him with a deflected free kick. The other shot were cleared of the line.
mere excuses.
Everton are a good team with quality.
The team selection was poor.
I was one of those who though ramsey should have started yesterday because energy was lacking
The Ox should be benched in the next game, he had another bad game.
Their 1st goal was frustrating to see ox walking into the box while the guy he should have been tighter on got in for a free header, yes Theo could have done better on the other side to block the cross but at least Theo ran to try while the Ox just lazily walked into the box and not done anything to help defend the cross in.
I thought Everton found it easier to defend against Theo when the Ox wasn’t really driving at them or trying to get in behind the last man in the attack, I wanted to see the Ox replaced by Perez by half time, Perez might have been more of a threat going forward after that confidence boost of a hat-trick.
I do blame Wenger for the loss, too late in getting that waste of space of the pitch and with Ozil not having his best game… we needed the others around him to step up and Ox failed.
Spot on. The Ox, Walcott and Wenger looses us games like this. Ox and Walcott are simply not able to be organized defensively game after game. So many times did Everton attack us on the flanks because it is so easy. For their first goal Walcott did try, but he was too far from his opponent in the first place, so he couldn’t press the guy well enough. But this is not only OX and Walcott, because we see the same, when Iwobi and the likes of Reine-Adelaide playing on the wings. The aren’t organized defensively either, so problem comes down to the manager, who simply has a blind spot. He can’t make the whole team defend, and without that, we will never become champions. We will always loose the odd few games more than our rivals.
The players you mentioned only play well when Ozil and Sanchez play well. Basically we haven’t got enough match winners in the team.
I would pay big money in January and get Payet even if it is for 2 seasons or 3. Stick him on one wing and you will see a big difference in the team. He has more qualities than Ox, Iwobi and Walcott.
If the team were tired why did the club take them by train arriving at 11pm the night before?
Fact is Everton upped the tempo were winning 40/60 tackles, getting the home crowd behind them and and we simply couldn’t cope.
End of story move onto Sunday.
Call it deluded,but I can see Sunderland maybe getting something this evening. Hazard injured.
Moyes must be brave with two strikers in Defoe and Anichebe. In their nine match winning run Chelsea haven’t played against a formation with 2 real strikers. Soton were the closest with Redmond and Austin. Back then Soton were experimenting still with 4-4-2. It would be interesting to see how their 3 cb’s deal with 2 strikers.
you are too bad at predicting. Chelsea won, we are 6 points behind, 3rd place, and we’ll be back to our favorite 4th position come Sunday evening, I’m trying to predict as well
I agree there is too much football being played so most clubs can`t afford to compete .
Other than that, Wenger`s team selection and substitutions is still a problem.