Arsene Wenger knows that Tuesday’s performance at Swansea was not good enough - and he gave a frank and full assessment at his post-match press conference.
Here’s the manager’s take on a dismal night for us in the Premier League.
on the performance…
I would say Swansea won decisive duels offensively and defensively, which is what we didn’t do. On top of that we made unusual, massive mistakes, that was the killer. They have a kind of game that gives you problems because they play very deep, very disciplined and that’s why I think the turning point of this game was when we were 1-0 up. [We were] absolutely guilty to concede the goal straight away, we have no rational explanation for the way we gave away the goal straight away. They were happy with the 1-1, it was down to not making a mistake, but overall we were not convincing offensively or defensively and in the end we lost the game.
on what he was angry with surrounding the second goal…
I was angry because there was no need to let the ball go out in the throw-in. We had the ball and we could play straight away. When you have a throw-in for you it’s nine against 10 on the pitch, why should you put a handicap like that on your own team? We can play the ball and attack straight away.
on what the result came down to…
I don’t put it down to anything, you make mistakes, you make mistakes, it is not always a rational explanation behind it apart from the fact that maybe it highlights the whole lack of quality of concentration that we lacked tonight.
on losing 15 points from winning positions this season…
It’s amazing because we have as well won 14 by being behind, but what is for sure is that tonight they won the more decisive duels at that level and offensively we didn’t win anything, defensively we lost too many duels to have a chance to win the game.
on our away form…
Maybe after a while it becomes a confidence problem as well, but overall it’s easy to put it down to confidence and tonight it’s very difficult to find a rational explanation behind our performance.
on his team’s lack of concentration and whether that is particularly frustrating…
Well, you can always explain defeats by that you know. What I meant by that was that in decisive moments we have been beaten. Especially the first goal, the second goal, the third goal… you cannot say they were absolutely unstoppable. At our level you need to win the decisive fights.
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