Arsene Wenger was understandably frustrated after we slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Watford at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
Afterwards he faced the media, and was asked about missing the opportunity to make up ground on leaders Chelsea.
This is what he had to say:
on other teams dropping points…
I’m responsible for the results of the team. I’m frustrated that we did not win. What the other teams do doesn’t matter. What you want is to win the games and I’m very frustrated that we did not win the game, of course. We played at home, we had a great opportunity and we have a start like we did. Of course it’s frustrating and the players will have to learn from that and respond very well and very quickly in a very convincing way.
on also starting badly against Bournemouth…
But in the Bournemouth game we played 48 hours before. That was not the case this time.
on whether his frustration is amplified as a result of his touchline ban…
I don’t know. It’s very difficult to know. It would be an easy excuse. I think, honestly, we prepared well, we warned that Watford would come and make it very physical and I have no basic regret, looking at the preparation, in the way that we prepared for the game. And did we think subconsciously that we will turn up and it will work? I don’t know. But from the stands I agree with you that our first half was not at the level that we wanted.
on whether Chelsea’s power will cause us a problem…
No, I don’t think we have a physical power problem. I think we were not mentally ready to deal with the duels that we usually do. You don’t make 47 points in the Premier League after 23 games if you have no physical power. But you have to switch it on at 100 per cent every time in the Premier League, that’s what it is about.
on whether we have to beat Chelsea to have a chance of catching them…
We want to respond and win the game of course. First, we have to analyse why we didn’t start well. There are some situations in our team which were not completely clear at the start of the game, and we have to analyse that well.
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