Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has taken credit for the changes implemented at half-time during the League Cup semi-final win over Chelsea last night.
They say that self-praise is no praise at all, but when you have as many critics as Arsene Wenger, sometimes you have to take pride in your work regardless.
The French boss has a huge agenda against him with many Gunners fans calling for him to step-down when he so much as sneezes in the wrong direction, but last night’s display showed that he still has much ability, and is far from dead yet.
Wenger has even moved to praise the changes he made at the interval, which gave his side the chance to win the match, and in turn reach the Carabao Cup final.
“They made us work for it, in the first half there were psychological and tactical reasons for us not expressing the quality of our game,” Wenger said.
“We rectified that at half time and in the second half we won the ball higher up. We could then get our midfield, who are very talented, into the game and we controlled it. In the second half basically we always looked like we could win this game.
“Yes it was a little bit a deflected goal on the first and the second one was a bit lucky, but I felt that we controlled the game well in the second half.
“Once I changed some things at half time, it worked quite well.”
Arsene then added that they must not distract themselves from their goals in the league following their heroics yesterday, and concentrating on our football would be the best way to build up to the Wembley showdown.
“Once you’re in the final you want to win it of course,” Wenger said. “But the best way to prepare for us is to come back into the top four in the Premier League.
“Before we play the final we have a big job in front of us. That’s what we want to focus on.”
Does Wenger deserve much of the credit for our win yesterday? Will his critics praise him or simply hide until a time for negativity?
Pat J
We have won nothing yet. If we win this cup, it’s a little positive. If we don’t, no matter because it is widely regarded as a Mickey Mouse cup. If we don’t win it, I don’t hold it against Wenger. The FA Cup loss was a lot more to handle, not to mention the PL failure once again.
Winning the Europa League is something to praise for.
I agree with the first comment
Europa League is a well respected trophy
Europa League would save our season in a sense because not only is it a bigger cup that we’ve never won but more importantly we get back into Champions League. It doesn’t look like we will get into CL through the normal route.
Carabao Cup alone won’t “save our season” as we need CL. I will be happy to win it but not as happy as winning the FA Cup. FA Cup is a major trophy to me as is Europa League
I am Wenger out, but last night he really made a good move at the start of the 2nd half and we dominted the game from there on. But his tactics at the begining (to leave Chelsea have posession) resultetd in 0:1. Overoll it was a good perfomance by the team and the Wenger.
Now we are waiting for Wenger to sign Ozil, Wilshere and Aubemeyang, and at least CDM or CB.
If that happens I will relax until the end of the season and enjoy football.
League cup FA Cup
and the Community Shield are
all silly, plain and simple.
PL Top 4 and round of 16 ECL
are minimum requirements.
Second in the PL and making the ECL semi final
is when the praise starts certainly no earlier.
If Arsenal is considered to be in the similar level as Everton, Newcastle, Tottenham or Leicester City, Wenger can be proud of the minor trophies. But Arsenal is supposed to get major trophies like the Premier League and Champions League, because they have abundant resources to do that:
– Their ticket is the most expensive one in England.
– They are one of the richest football clubs in the world (in top five).
– Their stadium and training facilities are one of the biggest and fanciest in England.
I will not blame Ozil if he wants to run his contract down, to attract more interests (as there seems to be none in this transfer window) and to escape from the greedy football club.
we are building a stadium to compete with the top tier in europe … but we can only do that in a few years once we have written down enough of the debt acquired in process … weve stabilised our debt position but we cant compete with wealthy clubs now coz they are oil funded but 4th place is like winning the league anyway … now its getting more an more competitive at the top so fa cup is like winning the league …. phew the fa cup is getting more competitive so winning the league cup is as good as winning the league just ask spurs fans … so yep congrats to wenger on making (league) cup heroics the new normal for a club that once claimed it would conquer europe … pass the kool aid pires
That is the best analogy of the last decade. Thank you RKW!
Manure last season won the Charity Shield plus league Cup and Europa League.They finished outside of the Top 4 but gained Champions League qualification through the EL win.Was that considered a successful season for them?Well it was an improvement on the season before and they have used that as a platform to move forward.This season they are only really left playing for the FA CUP as they will not overtake City and will not win the CL. If we have an end to the season to match the Manx’s last year will we consider it a success as they did?I think we have to strive to win the TWO cups as priority and end up as high as we can in the league.Then get that French Dinosaur out and begin to move forward.
Winning the league cup would be nice but even better if we add the Europa league with it! So winning the league cup and nothing else would be a disappointing season, winning domestic cups only rewards you with Europa league football and a club this size should be in Europe’s premier competition. Hearing Dortmund have rejected our latest bid for Aubameyang.. our we the only team that takes a full transfer window to sign a player? It’s ridiculous and I know this isn’t a computer game but come on we are always seriously slow in recruiting if you want the player pay the asking price you don’t go into Sainsbury’s and haggle with the prices you just pay sometimes things are overpriced but if you want them don’t you buy them? Arsenal have made money in the last two windows yet we’re still acting cheap and for that very reason we have missed out on some important signings! If this transfer isn’t wrapped up soon someone will come in and actually pay the asking price but we’re Arsenal we have Eddie Nketiah who needs PEA ?
Eddie N is apparently a top talent with a big future.He will progress more by playing and training with the abilities of Auba than Giroud and Wellbeck.Sounds harsh but it’s true.Just get the deal done and stop acting like Del Boy.You know it makes sense
Absolutely agree Phil the young talent in the team will only get better by learning from world class players although we don’t have many..Ozil being the standout world class star there isn’t many more on his level. We got the chance to bring in a world class striker and we’re trying to haggle! world class players aren’t cheap so we should just pay what’s being asked! Lacazette is good but he’s struggling I like giroud but mainly as an impact player from the bench and Danny Welbeck just isn’t good enough plus he can’t stay fit so we’re definitely short up top. If we gotta pay 60 mil for PEA just pay it! he might not be worth that price tag and neither is Van Dijk but Liverpool wanted the player so paid what was asked and done it fast! It’s a crazy market the club need to accept that. Lovely jubbly ?
I think, Arsenal will not achieve anything significant with Wenger in charge, and the sooner we get rid og him the better.
But having that opinion doesn’t mean, you think, he can’t get it right some of the time.
In fact, that is part of the problem. His tactics and his lack of winning mentality so often often gets us close to something (i.e. we have all the top 4 in the league), but it has not given us a great result for more than 10 years.
Yesterday was very good, but it is only a matter of time before we see a new low point, as his tactics and attitude are from the last century.
Completely agree @AndersS Wenger will win the odd domestic cup that’s about as good as it’s gonna get with him as our manager, we definitely will not be challenging for league titles or European cups until we bring in a younger manager and appoint an entire new board that actually know what they’re doing. Wenger out, Kroenke out, the board out!
Andres S I can’t fault a word you have said.He made that change at half time that changed the shape just enough to get the job done and you have to acknowledge the team responding.This now leads us to the fact we have ANOTHER Wembley date that 90 other teams wish they had despite it being labelled a Mickey Mouse tournament.Win it and we have Europa Cup minimum next season(correct me if I’m wrong here)and that will keep him in the job next season no matter how much we recognise and want change.I suppose all the AKB’s will be swinging from the chandeliers (note-that was for you JW)at what we still feel will be an under achievement but they would rejoice at us winning the Emirates Cup they are so blinkered.Yes he got the job done last night but let’s not be fooled he is the manager that can take us forward.In spite of that we will all ba at Wembley and as we all know we NEVER LOSE there.
Well said. He does get SOME things right but gets FAR MORE WRONG!
Can’t hail Wenger until we win EPL or UCL, but qualifying for the final of the CARABAO (does this even mean something) Cup?
I am wenger out all the way but i’ll applaud tactical brilliance when i see it. Funny fact is wenger manage to outplay conte ‘tactical genius’ most of the time we play while he cant do it against most managers.
Right now getting at the very least top 4 every season is an ok season
winning domestic cups + top 4 is good
Challenging for the epl with good progress in all cups is good season even without title
Challenging epl + winning cups is very good
Winning epl or getting to last 4 of C league is the best season
out of top 4 without any cups + early exit in c league is a disaster
out of top 4 and domestic cups + winning europa is Get out of jail free
What I don’t want to hear now is for Arsene to be give extended contract ‘IF’ he wins the Leage Cup or UEFA Cup.
After qualifying for the carabao cup finals, it is now confirmed that Arsene is the best manager and money-ger in the world. Qualifying for this final is like winning the EPL and the UCL. Those who even thought that we need Auba for a new signing should bark off. The squad we have has the quality to win everything. Don’t forget that We can still win the EPL this year if Manchester City loses all their remaining matches and we win all ours, if Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and Spurs lose their entire squads to injury then we have the EPL all at our disposal to win. Let’s be positive. It will happen
Yes he deserves credit, the change in our tactics led to another fine result v Chelsea. Reading down there for a bit had me going, seemed like the question was ..is this trophy as big as a league title.
The writer Pat J, completely disregards the many, MANY , reasons WHY so many Gooners cannot stand Wenger. I’ll list just a few -though you will know that I can easily write a large book of his many mistakes and obstinacies. No proper regard for a tight defence. No regard for a proper CDM. No obvious awareness that coaching is a vital skill that he lacks, esp in defence. No intention of letting others who CAN coach defence, actually do so. No Plan B. Sideways tip tap passing. Sending both fullbacks up together and leaving no cover behind. Poor buys. Keeping deadwood around for years, often injured and useless but still on high wages. Constant year on year injury crises. Failure to chase the best available players. Failure to stand up to the board and demand more to spend. Ridiculous subs , always made by the clock (a slave to the 70th minute). Playing players in ludicrously unsuitable positions. No physical power down spine of team. Supreme arrogance that only HE ever knows. Failure to accept the truth that when top players do not re-sign contracts, they WANT to go. Goes along and endorses Gazidis’s regular lies. Always moaning at fourth offiials and refs, thus embarrassing the clubs name and never accepting we were not good enough. Totally out of touch with all football reality. Will that do for now? Hope so but I could go on and on and on, rather like he has disgracefully done! So NO , Pat J, his cup record nowhere near makes up for these torrent of mistakes, year after tedious year!
Jon Fox you forgot how ridiculous he looks wearing that big coat.
John you have hit the nail on the head again, particularly in regards to defense. If Wenger doesn’t have any interest in coaching defense, why not delegate to Steve Bould and Per Mertesacher both experienced defenders?