It was a disappointing night on Merseyside on Tuesday as our 14-match unbeaten run in the Premier League came to an end at Everton.
Arsene Wenger spoke to the media after the game and this is what he had to say:
on whether it was a free-kick and then a corner in the build-up to the goal…
Of course, it was not a corner - you see it from outside that it was not a corner. 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.
on whether we allowed the game to get away…
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.
on whether his side need to learn from the defeat…
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.
on whether Mustafi was missed…
No. I think Gabriel did well. I don’t think it is Gabriel’s fault on the corners. Not on the first goal, the responsibility is somewhere else.
on whether the atmosphere got to his players…
No, no. We were a little bit less fresh you know, but maybe as well we lost a bit of urgency when we were 1-0 up and perfectly in control of the game. We thought ‘Okay’ and we started to lose some balls that gave Everton some hope. But overall, no. We are used to playing, you know when you play nine months away from home unbeaten you have that nearly every week.
on whether it was about Everton’s aggression…
A little bit, yes. They made the game very physical, they defended well - you have to give them credit. They played a cup game here, that is a big difference with what I saw recently from them. So they did fight for every single ball. I don’t think they can repeat that in every single game, but they did here.
on the incident in the tunnel at half-time…
I was close to it and I didn’t see a lot there. There was a little bit of pushing but nothing dramatic.
on whether McCarthy did anything to Ozil at half-time…
He was very physical today, McCarthy. But it’s down to the referee you know, I cannot interfere too much in that. The referee has to make the game respected.
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