It seems that the stress is getting to the Arsenal manager after the media response to our historic defeat to Olympiakos on Tuesday. It was obvious that he was once again going to be asked about his decision to play David Ospina ahead of Petr Cech in the crucial Champions League game, but he simply wasn’t prepared to answer it again and again.
“Stop that story or we stop the press conference,” Wenger ranted. “Do not come always back with that same story. I think you lack a bit of creativity in the press at the moment and you follow a bandwagon. It’s very boring.
“I don’t go along with that (criticism). If you have an interesting question I will answer but apart from that let’s not always come back to the same story. Come to the game on Sunday and you will see who’s in the goal.
“I think you have not watched well the game on Tuesday night. To come always with the same story.
“You can put the goalkeeper you want in the goal. He can make a mistake and you have to accept that.
“If you watched really the game and you come to the conclusion we lost because of Ospina I question your knowledge in football.”
Many TV pundits, including Ian Wright, had criticized Wenger’s decision, and Le Prof was pushed to respond to their scathing attacks.
“Because they lack a bit of creativity in their questions. They don’t analyse well.” Wenger retorted. “Honestly, not one came out and analysed well the game. One pundit says something on TV and all behind that repeat the same thing. It is quite boring.
“Nobody came out with numbers where the game was won or lost. It’s quite depressing to read that and hear that. But all just come to the same conclusion and haven’t watched what’s gone on on the pitch.
“We lost the game because we didn’t defend well. Yes the keeper made a mistake but we could still have won the game because of that.”
It is fair to say that it was NOT just Ospina’s fault that we lost the game, the whole team was at fault, but one just has to agree that Cech would have been the safer pair of hands with his Champions League experience.
But this conference was supposed to be about the Man United game, but it doesn’t seem there was any mention of the match in the whole 20 minutes (one of the shortest ever?). Let’s hope Cech doesn’t make a mistake on Sunday and gift United the game. I certainly wouldn’t look forward to the after match chat!
wenger ozil cazorla coquelin wilshere giroud ramsey ox OUT
stones cavarlho krychowiak gotze gundogan reus klopp IN
so let me get this straight about this manure team
We all know
herrera is better than cazorla
mata is better than ozil
schneiderlin is better than wilshere and ramsey
rooney is better than giroud
depay is better than the ox
martial is better than walcott
schwenstiger is better than le coq
degea is better than cech
so ill be happy with just a draw
should a miracle happen and it so occurs that we win then ill be more than convinced we are going to progress to the round of 16 in the champs league
this comment is so bad i actually might implode from reading it
the truth hurts muff
Cazorla, Coquelin and Ozil are fantastic players. Why would you want to get rid of them?
tatgooner: the new hafiz.
You are really “ill”.
Let me use the piano as an example: how nice it sounds depends on who’s playing it.
How good our players arE or could ever be depends on who’s the manager. Some of our players are like shIiiiiiiiiiiiIiiiiittt becuz Arsene is the manager. You’d be amazed if you saw them play under a different manager who’s beTter.
Oh look! We got another hafeez!
I have to agree with u on 1 ting & thats #wengerout but the rest ur crazy.
He did mention the game with Man U and said Kos Flam and Arteta are all out.
Kos out for 3 weeks with a hammy! Oops.
3 weeks of mertesacker.
*lights incense
‘buddha if your listening…’
He will still confronted with the question if we don’t make out of the group stage of UCL. Bought a goalkeeper for more than 10m BP and bench him in a must win match for your second choice GK? Insane. Am still mad with him.
if we get third in this group- we play thursdays in outer mongolia
then sat/sunday in pl…which basically means we will throw away our title challenge
either come second or last in cl- thats our only option
Yes. Arsenal will have the European competition they deserve. If they deserve EL then they will have to do with a trip to Mongolia or Kazakhstan. Europe is not a small place. They better get used with it.
Buddy Budd, do you think anything is wrong at Arsenal? If yes, who do u think should be blamed and why? Honestly, somehow I think u really don’t give a f*******k about anything at Arsenal other than your watertight opinions.
Uh, strong words coming from an Arsenal hater. But to answer your question there’s always something or someone to blame. It depends for what. For the loss on Tuesday it is clear that the team did not tun up entirely. There were a couple but the rest had a shocker. Attitude coming on the pitch is to blame, I have said it earlier. However, it is not me to identify who’s to blame. I just have an opinion and I don’t actually expect people to agree with it just because I say so. Like you are doing it constantly.
Heard you the first time. Gave you an answer, no need to repeat it like a broken record.
Are you done? Everyone and their mothers put Ospina in the goal with Olympiacos. If it was Cech doing it then you’d ask why we didn’t rested Cech. We did not lose because Ospina’s blunder. Get over it.
ospina was not the only problem (and i liked ospina before this): the defenders were switched off. someone is not doing a good job getting the players motivated – my guess is that would be wenger. the players themselves should also be professionals and turn up. gibbs and debuchy have really regressed now that they’re not 1st team regulars.
Abit of pressure on the boss might just be what this team needs, lets hope theyb respond well against united.
Ospina made a stupid mistake. Dont think he’ll be batting the ball down like that anymore!
Error!!!!! You do not use “pressure” and “Arsene” together in a sentence.
Actually considering where arsenal were at the mid point of the season last year i think arsenal work far better when under pressure
actually what that means is that they have potential in store, but dont bring it to the table unless they have to. thats lack of discipline. only when something awful is threatened (losing 4th in PL) do they play up to their full potential.
The last kicks of a dying horse. He was grinning stupidly during the transfer window while lying to fans about how he is working 24hours a day to bring in new players,yet now he can’t handle a few questions about his failings.He deserves all that is coming his way,and it’s only the beginning of the season.I hope it all gets to him until he finally crumbles and quits.
If he’d had the same attitude you will be saying he does not care, he’s stubborn and he’s arrogant. It just proves he cares and that defeat eats him still. So probably it is good he’s twitchy these days.
too bad he wasn’t twitchy during the summer transfer window. either he was delusional that he didn’t need strengthening (unlikely). my guess is its a combination of incompetence and greed (tried to buy players, but didn’t want to pay the going rate).
#antiwenger;
That is exactly the point, dishonesty to the highest level, cover the truth about Welback, no intention of buying anyone other than Cech. Team had no depth in DMF, no top class striker, and he says we can win competitions!!!!!
Then lying to claim that there are not good quality players better than our current squad!!! This hurts me the most. Few hundred players were traded, close to a Billion spent, and non was as good as Giroud, or non was good enough to be the back up for Le Quoc!!! Shame on you to be such a liar and dishonest.
Forget about GK here and there, Wenger is the main problem along with Kroenke and the gang! They all have to go. Stan Kroenke just last month took another 3 mill from Arsenal to his personal account, while some in London are paying the most Expensive ticket in the world to watch Arsenal beaten at home to 3rd tier European team.
WENGER OUT ASAP
Here, here. The holder of the absolute truth has spoken. Honestly, you don’t even deserve an answer for all the allegations you spout as facts. And what’s worse is that you said them after the event unfolded already without having the slightest evidence to back it up.
The very same Peter Cech made a mistake when we were playing against West Ham and we lost three point. Now to some people its like a strange thing that Ospina made a mistake and we lost three points. People should come to their senses and realize that a game of soccer is all about taking advantage of ones mistake. The very same Ospina kept a number of clean sheets last season but now its like he is not a good goalkeeper. What makes one to be a good goalkeeper or world class as some people usually say here. I do not blame Wenger at all for selecting Ospina. He has a world cup experience as well so why not select him. The next day Cech made a mistake nobody will be asking why did you select Cech over Ospina.
You don’t get it do you?Its not about the mistake Ospina made, every goalkeeper made mistakes.The question is why do you rest your first choice keeper for the biggest competition in Europe in a must win game.And if you are not going to play one of the best keeper, a keeper who has a lot of experience in Europe, then what is the use of signing him in the first place?I did not hear a lot of people criticizing Ospina for the mistake rather all the fans, pundits are criticizing Wenegr for the choice he made.
At times I wonder if football is for dumb and brainless people. The criticism for not selecting Petr Cech precisely comes from the fact that Ospina made a costly mistake and nothing else. A second choice goalkeeper rarely gets opportunities to play, so any good manager will manage rotation in this area without upsetting the defensive balance of a team. Last season Cech was a cups and champions league keeper at Chelsea, and so was Ospina at Arsenal until he overtook Scezeny as number one. This season its Ospina for cup games and CL, while Cech play it out in the premier league. This must tell you that the priority for Arsenal is the domestic league, not champions league and cup games.
wow you would say anything to defend Wenger.
1. And you are justifying his choice of Ospina by showing how Mourinho used to rotate Cech and Courtois. Yes Cech was a second choice goal keeper in Chelsea last season, but he can walk in any European team be it Barca, Real, Bayern and can become first choice keeper.Can you say the same thing about Ospina? Cech played for Chelsea for 11 years, he won CL, EL and EPL with them, he has a massive experience, any team and defenders can benefit from him, so Mourinho using him for CL games does not come as a surprise at all, Mourinho wanted to exploit the expreice Cech has in CL thats why he used him not merely for rotation purpose. Chech last season was second choice at Chelsea but this season he is a first choice at Arsenal.So if Mourinho used his second choice keeper for CL, why would not Arsene use the same keeper (first choice keeper) in CL matches? That’s why everybody was baffled by the choice.
2.And you are justifying the choice of a second goalkeeper for CL games by saying,”Wenger’s priority is the league, that is where he is going to use Cech.” Do you really know how wrong that sounds? You are saying a big team like Arsenal does not have an ambition to win CL, so we are prioritizing EPL?
3. You Said, “A second choice goalkeeper rarely gets opportunities to play, so any good manager will manage rotation in this area without upsetting the defensive balance of a team.” Yes good managers rotate players. I mean by “good”, if you mean managers who has the ambition, the will and the drive to win in every competition he participates in.If we can agree on a definition of good mangers then i can assure you that they do not drop their best goalkeeper in CL competition in a must win game( even though you said, we don’t have ambition to win CL) for their second choice keeper.
Sometimes no matter how much you love and admire a person,saying that he was wrong when he made a mistake is a good thing. So in this case Wenger was wrong.
And @The Analyzer calling me “dumb and brainless ” is not going to make you smart and is not going to make the point you are making more reasonable or correct.So no need for name calling,let us just dismiss (attack) the idea people are making rather than the people.
I looks like you don’t get it. First of all everyone put Ospina in the goal. Including you. Easy to talk after. Secondly Cech apparently had a knock which made the decision even more sensible.
Never a dull moment with Arsene…..
Its good to see Wenger under pressure and being held to account for his decisions by the press because no else is going to do it.
LOL it’s hilarious hearing Wenger use the word ‘creative’ wish he used that a lot in his tactics. Its clear the pressure is getting to him and his stance on not admitting playing Ospina was a mistake just shows how stubborn the grandpa is. If Man U beat us he might as well avoid the press or else he will start insulting Journalists. I’m loving this the specialist in failure crumbling before our own eyes bet the AKb’s are having a torrid time watching their messiah suffer
TH14 : “England teams are losing their fear factor at ECL”. We saw it from last 3 years.
I’m not saying that our 2nd defeat is acceptable, but our priority is clear. Even if we pass the group stage, I don’t think we can go as far as quarter final. We donn’t have the right click yet. But at EPL, 7 games 3 point from the top, hell we can still manage to do it. AW should use his “not my favor” January transfer at less for one CDM. Too much defensive ability gap between Coq and his back up (Arteta and Flamini).
Mean time, AW is in the middle of his LAST gambling after not used that 200M back at summer window. We’ll find out whether his right or wrong at the end.
However, I still hope Arsenal will get the best result WITH or WITHOUT Arsene, which mean get behind the players and cheers the team I love. COYG!!!!
dragunov: you are not caught up to the latest conclusion:
“We’ll find out whether his right or wrong at the end.”: he’s going to be wrong.
Atleast watch the whole press conference before making a post out of it…
Wenger was more than happy to answer any questions about the GK decision…It was only when he was asked about Moaninho’s comments did he get angry and accuse the press of ‘lacking creativity’..!!
Wenger selecting ospina is the right chioce . Nobody is above misstakes and besides ospina was never at fault for our lost
i like ospina. but he was 33% of the fault of our loss. 67% was gibbs, debuchy.
So everyone in the press is asking why Ospina made that mistake? No one is asking why Arsenal defenders made the mistake for the third goal when we were 2-2 at that moment??
Some journalist are are stupid, how can they ask the same question 3 times and it irrelevant question, Arsen did acknowledge that he is accountable for the results not the explanation of how he select his team. We lost on Tuesday because of the whole team performance except for Sanchez, that line up that was put there is capable of beating any team it just that they didn’t show up on the day that why Wenger was furious with them during the training this week. This players are letting Arsen down, i would die to work under manager like Wenger whom he always protect them in public
The reason he has the hump is no doubt because now we have messed up our cash cow which is the CL the board will be moaning. That’s the only thing they care about as I am guessing that’s where the majority of their bonus comes from.
You never see him get like this over the league or FA cup do you? That’s because we are a business and the suits in the boardroom couldn’t give a stuff about the club or how we do In anything other than the CL as that’s where the money is at.
We are a business foremost with a football club as an add on.
We pay the highest ticket prices in the world of football to watch these stiffs take in more cash for their pockets. All this nonsense that we have millions to spend is rubbish, that’s another business tactic of overstating yourself to bring the investors flocking. No idiot like that Lord at lunch says they have 200 million to spend on players if we were seriously in the market for anyone….you are asking for people to double their price!
Until we get rid of the yank that siphons the cash to his US teams he does care about then nothing will change.
As a season ticket holder just about had it now with the board and our shifty ways. Sick of my hard earned cash going to this lot.
Next season seriously thinking of chopping it in now. The stadium doesn’t even have the atmosphere anymore anyway…most real fans been priced out by these greedy buggers, very hard to accept when what we do watch is mostly dire anyway.
Arsene Wenger knows the English Premiership has become a very hard league and any slip could result in an unredeemable catastrophe. He knows he cannot allow United and City to move too far from him as they could be unstoppable if he does. He will therefore be careful with the decisions he makes for the match and this could be the edge Arsenal need.
Football/soccer is a game of 11 against 11 or 5 against 5 or what ever situations change every second your brain your legs you foot/feet and 10 others move so fast mistakes / accuracy can easily be skewed >>>i played last night with 2 assists and a goal before all of that i scored an own goal i was cutting a cross that went in the wrong direction if i got down with it if the rest of the players went down with it we would have not won the game the most important aspect of a game is the fight within one self to work harder with others that work harder because its a team efforts you single out the mistake you kill the fight of the whole team cause you internally think if i work harder my efforts will go no where cause x player will make a mistake and that eventually moves on to the whole team the changing room becomes the high court with out a judge We got an important outing against united we need to be united for the Arsenal we need to be strong we need to support our team we need to be extra loud come all of you come on Arsenal our team needs it
We all have to realise that Wenger will leave Arsenal one day…either he is sacked, at the end of his contract, or he dies of old age as the manager. But you know what? We will still be Arsenal after him. So, we shouldn’t be scared of Wenger leaving. Arsenal will not fall apart.
My opinion though is
#WengerOut
Spread the word.
The poor results of English teams in European competition suggest Premier League sides have begun to believe the hype that surrounds our domestic game. The likes of Arsenal expect to rotate their starting XI, turn up to play their usual game and swat away the opposition. Perhaps most strangely, they resolutely fail to learn their lesson when that approach comes a-cropper.
After two consecutive defeats, Arsenal are staring down the barrel of their first group stage exit in 18 years. It may take that shock to the system for them to buck their ideas up.
Louis van Gaal has suggested that Arsenal are the best team in the Premier League.
The Manchester United boss is preparing his side to face the Gunners this weekend and admits he is still wary of Arsenal despite their Champions League loss.
And he was quick to heap praise onto Arsene Wenger’s side with regards to the quality that they posses.
Van Gaal said at his pre-match press conference that Arsenal could be the best team in the league ‘in a technical and tactical sense.’
‘Nevertheless, they haven’t won so much, so you have to look for that improvement with that team,’ he added.
‘I think Arsenal can come back from a defeat. They have shown that a lot of times.’